the yehudi Menuhin School

The School began life in London in 1963 with just fifteen pupils before moving in the following year to Stoke d'Abernon, a small village in Surrey, south west of London. There are now over fifty staff who provide the musical, academic and pastoral direction for around eighty boys and girls aged from 8 to 19.

The two early nineteenth-century buildings which formed the heart of the School have been extended and added to considerably over the following decades. Additional teaching, practice and boarding accommodation was added in the 1970s. The 1990s saw the creation of a new boarding house, Harris House, and the renovation of the White house to form a new academic teaching building, with a modern science laboratory, multi-purpose performance/exercise space, music technology studio, classrooms and library.

When Lord Menuhin died in 1999, his funeral was held at the School and he was buried in the school grounds just beneath the tree he planted a few years earlier to mark his 80th birthday. His legacy was commemorated further with the opening in January 2006 of The Menuhin Hall, a 300-seat concert hall just a few feet from his grave. The Hall now provides rehearsal, recording and performance space for pupils at the School, who give in the region of twenty "Showcase" concerts there each year. It is also a platform for the dozen or so "Celebrity" concerts given throughout the year by musicians of international standing, as well as being a popular venue for local groups and musical societies and the many projects we do for the wider community.

Further developments have included the renovation, extension and covering of the outdoor pool to provide an attractive indoor swimming facility which can be used all year round (Summer 2010) and the upgrading of the servery and dining room (Spring 2011). In the course of 2015 and 2016 both Music House and Harris House were extended to allow for a total of thirteen extra bedrooms for senior students, plus two staff flats. In September 2016 the new Music Studios were opened, which include eleven new spacious teaching and practice rooms, and a large teaching or seminar room, all equipped with new pianos.

The international reputation of the school continues to attract pupils from all over the world who find a happy atmosphere in a large musical family. Just over half of our pupils live in the UK. At the moment, the remaining pupils come from Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Mexico and Brazil.

As well as having the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim as our President and Musical Patrons of the calibre and international renown of Sir András Schiff, Steven Isserlis, and Heinrich Schiff, the School has enjoyed may visits over the years from famous musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Gidon Kremer, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Louis Kentner, Vlado Perlemuter, and, of course, Yehudi Menuhin himself. Over the last two years visiting teachers have included Shmuel Ashkenazy, Haken Austbo, Colin Carr, the Emerson Quartet, Lewis Kaplan, Andras Keller, Robert Levin, Claron McFadden, Jerome Rose and John Williams. They have added to the expertise of our highly regarded team of regular teachers who give our pupils an unparalleled level of individual tuition week on week throughout the term.