Music Box Sessions
Launched in 2022, the Music Box Sessions showcase everything we do at the Music Box, the College’s purpose-built music teaching hub, and provide a platform for our classical ensembles, popular music bands, singer songwriters and solo artists to become successful musicians.
Filmed and edited by music lecturer Scott Hannah, recorded and mixed by learning assistant Sarah May, the Music Box Sessions give our students essential studio experience, a performance to work towards and a valuable platform for promoting and sharing the music they make.
The weekly sessions started in February 2022 and since then we have run a session nearly every week of the academic year - nearly 40 so far! Every music student, from NC5 to our BA programme, is offered the opportunity to come into the studio and record a piece they’ve been working on, even some of our graduates and staff have taken part.
Throughout the sessions, viewers are treated to a wide range of musical styles and genres, from classical and rock, to jazz and metal, and really give the viewer a chance to see what happens at the music department.
The Music Box Sessions keep getting bigger and better and as we approach the 50th session, it provides the perfect opportunity to take look back at the students who study here and see their growth and improvement as musicians. We hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoy making them and remember to check out the new session every Friday, live at five.
Arthur is one of our BA students who composed and performed this piece in the Music Box Auditorium on our grand piano.
“September is an original composition inspired by the work of contemporary pianists such as Yann Tiersen and George Winston. The repeating left-hand patterns found on Tiersen's 'Eusa' album and Winston's 'December', particularly influenced the middle section of 'September', in 7/8 time."Arthur Hill
Music Curriculum Team Manager Laurie Crump leads the College Traditional Music Band in a set of three Scottish marches put together for a Gay Gordon's ceilidh dance.
Music Lecturer Katrina Bateman leads the string ensemble with Laurie conducting this powerful piece by Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk. The ensemble wore blue and yellow as a show of support for Ukraine.
BA student Ari Blanco and her band perform a fantastic cover of Goodbye by Morgan.
"This is the project, Air! The name of this song is ‘Goodbye’ and was originally written by the Spanish band, Morgan. We recently formed as a band in order to complete the final project of the BA in Music that I am currently studying. For this final project I decided to do a musical performance that tell a story with words, music and video. Band members include: Ari Blanco on keys and vocals, Tom Allan on guitar, Ross MacKenzie on drums and Murray Brown on bass."Ari Blanco