Music at MAA

The quality of music provision is exceptional. Pupils know how lucky they are to have such opportunities, because they make a significant contribution to pupils’ personal development and life experiences. - (Ofsted) 

Malcolm Arnold Academy is named after the Northampton-born composer Malcolm Arnold, and is the David Ross Education Trust’s flagship academy for Music. 10% of the student intake of 1300 have gained places at the academy for their musical aptitude, receiving substantial subsidy towards one-to-one instrumental tuition; among this cohort are fifteen Beckwith Music Scholars, all instrumentalists at a high level who play a major role in school and county musical ensembles.

For further information on Music Scholarships visit our admissions page.

All students study music as part of the KS3 curriculum, with three hours per fortnight allocated for Years 7 and 8 and two hours per fortnight for Year 9. GCSE and A Level Music are guaranteed offers. MAA featured as a case study in the National Plan for Music Education because of the school’s whole-hearted belief that every student should access a high-quality music education.

The academy’s co-curricular programme includes a Big Band, Brass Ensemble, Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble as well as several smaller ensembles for woodwind, brass, strings and percussion. Choral Music is especially strong, stemming from singing being at the heart of classroom music and leading to the Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs, School Choir and Chamber Choir. The academy enjoys a strong relationship with NMPAT (the lead organisation for the Northamptonshire and Rutland Music Hub), with several ensembles led by NMPAT teachers, and with the Nevill Holt Festival, for whom the academy provided the Children’s Choir for productions of La Bohème, Carmen, Noye’s Fludde and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Nevill Holt Opera, being described by the Daily Telegraph as “simply terrific” and by Arts Desk as “superb and immaculately drilled”. Over the last few years, the School Choir has performed Britten St Nicolas and Orff Carmina Burana with the Orchestra of St John’s, Monteverdi Vespers with the Northampton Bach Choir, and Praetorius Mass for Christmas morning with the Gabrieli Consort in venues including Dorchester Abbey, Ely Cathedral, Hull Minster and St John’s Smith Square, London, as well as providing the choir for the Britten Sinfonia’s performance of music for the video game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

Music students at MAA have gone on to take up places at the UK’s leading universities and conservatoires, with several ex-students now working as professional musicians.

Members of the MAA School Choir performing with the Gabrieli Consort and Players, conducted by Paul McCreesh

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