The Chapel choir performs at St Paul’s, Evelyn Glennie graces the Speech Hall and the Merriman Concert Orchestra is formed.
2000 The opening of the Merriman Music School, planned and built under long-serving clerk of works Clive Stevens, after whom the hundred-seat recital hall was named. It was opened by Stephen Cleobury, the distinguished Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge and visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music. The internationally acclaimed Medici String Quartet, led by Paul Robertson, gave a concert and were joined in performance by music scholars as well as the school’s Chamber Choir.
2000 A musical tour to Krakow. The expedition consisted of nearly fifty pupils and staff from the Cranleigh Chamber Choir and Swing Band.
2000 The Chapel Choir sang evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral.
2001 A CD of choral music sung by the Chapel Choir, Cranleigh Voices and the whole School, recorded at a special congregational practice in Chapel, was released.
2001 The first staging of the Brass Competition. Within three years there were also separate competitions for strings, woodwind and singing. The winners qualified with two others for the Helen Wareham Competition.
2001 Evelyn Glennie, the world-famous percussionist, gave a sell-out concert in the Speech Hall after she gave a percussion masterclass to four hundred young Cranleigh musicians and children from local state and independent schools.
2002 The inaugural Dashwood Piano competition was held, donated by Cyril Dashwood (1&4 South 1942).
2003 Forty musicians, including the Big Band, travelled to Leipzig and Prague.
2004 The first formal reference to RocSoc although there is evidence that this had been in existence, albeit hidden from official view, for at least a decade. Allowing pupils to show off their contemporary music credentials, the society grew over the following years and became a highlight of the Summer Term. It ended in 2019 having been superseded by Cranleigh Live.
The Blues Brothers Review, a collection of songs from the film accompanied by a full school band, raised five thousand pounds for the village hospital.
2004 Marcus Pashley took over as Director of Music, a role he held for fifteen years. “He led the Music Department with dedication, good humour and a great deal of patience,” said his successor Richard Saxel.
2006 A lavish production of Les Miserables kickstarted the modern tradition of the bi-annual musical followed by Sweeney Todd (2008), Fiddler on the Roof (2010), The Producers (2012), Into The Woods (2014), a reprise of Les Miserables (2016), Chicago (2018), We Will Rock You (2020), Little Shop of Horrors (2022), West Side Story (2024) and The Sound of Music (2026).
2006 The Merriman Concert Orchestra was formed to bring top-class orchestral music to the school, including pupils, music teachers and professionals.
2009 The concept of Cranleigh Music 7-18 was introduced. “It brought together the music of the senior and prep sites into a single structure,” said Pashley.
2009 A bands tour to New York saw them perform to staff in the British Consulate, in the Band Shell in Central Park and on the flight deck of the World War Two aircraft-carrier SS Intrepid.
2011 The new Mander organ in the refurbished Chapel was unveiled in a stunning recital by Thomas Trotter. Since then Philip Scriven’s regular recitals on this beautiful instrument have drawn audiences from a wide radius.
2011 The choir undertook a six-day tour to Venice where the highlights were performing at the Basilica di San Marco and singing around the tomb of St Anthony in Padua.
2012 In the Lent Term the Choir sang evensong in Winchester Cathedral and then in the summer were invited to deputise for the Canterbury Cathedral choir who were on tour in the USA.
2014 Guy Waller’s retirement in 2014 was marked by a concert at G Live where his favourite pieces were performed by many of those who had been at Cranleigh during his time. It celebrated Cranleigh music, past and present, with OCs invited back to join school performers, both on stage and in the orchestra.
2014 The Symphonic Wind Band made its debut as the band for the Cranleigh Village Remembrance Day Service at the War Memorial on the High Street. It continues to be part of the service to this day.
2015 George Royall was appointed as the first Head of Contemporary Music. In his first year the number of pupils wishing to take music technology as an A Level subject increased and the school became a centre for RockSchool practical examinations. He also revamped Cranleigh Live to showcase the best of contemporary music.
2016 A music and cultural tour during the Easter holidays saw thirty-one pupils and staff from both Cranleigh Senior and Cranleigh Prep visit Cranleigh Abu Dhabi. Marcus Pashley said: “It was wholly appropriate that it was in music, that most international of languages, that the UK and Abu Dhabi pupils worked together for the first time.”
2018 Twenty-one pupils from Abu Dhabi came to Cranleigh for three days of intensive music-making and to experience the joys of an English winter.
2019 Richard Saxel, who first came to Cranleigh in 2000 as a peripatetic teacher and joined full-time in 2001, was appointed Director of Music.
2020 Covid lockdowns and limitations severely impacted on music performances but several concerts were held virtually. Cranleigh was unable to host any public performances for over a year while music teaching also suffered huge disruption.
2021 The Chineke! Orchestra performed the world premiere of a new concerto by Jill Jarman among other material by composers of a diverse ethnic heritage. Cranleigh signs a formal alliance with Black Lives in Music.
2024 A revival of West Side Story marked the sixtieth anniversary of the original production culminating in a gala evening attended by several of the original cast.
2025 The school held a Winter Music Festival featuring visiting musicians from Cranleigh Abu Dhabi.
2026 The whole performing arts department combines to produce The Sound of Music, with three performances in Speech Hall and a gala performance at the New Wimbledon Theatre.
