More than music: composing life skills

Once a tutor even flew out on a Friday afternoon, travelled overseas to perform during half-time at a World Cup soccer match, and was back in the classroom by the following Monday. Another spent the day in a recording studio laying down tracks with Harry Connick Jr before returning to teach.

Stories like this aren’t unusual at Haileybury, where most of the school’s 70 specialist music tutors are active professionals performing with leading orchestras, opera companies, theatre productions and international touring acts, all while teaching eager students who are keen to learn from musicians at the top of their field.

Learning from working artists gives students more than musical technique; it shows them what creative discipline looks like in the real world. Students see perseverance, collaboration and problem-solving modelled in every lesson, helping them develop confidence and adaptability in ways traditional classroom learning can’t always replicate.

In the spotlight

“We hire great educators who have a strong connection with the music industry. They perform with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, in bands like TaxiRide or The Bamboos, and in musicals like Harry Potter and Annie. Our trumpet tutor regularly plays the Last Post at AFL games on ANZAC Day,” says Rod Marshall, Director of Performing Arts and Head of Music at Haileybury.

Each week, 1,200 students study with a specialist music tutor, which is nearly a quarter of the school’s entire cohort. They can take lessons in any instrument through brass, keyboard, woodwinds, strings, voice, guitars, percussion and drums, even Pipe Organ!

More than making music

The popularity of the music program underpins Haileybury’s firm belief that learning to sing or play an instrument, to any level, delivers a more rounded education and teaches young people skills far beyond how to simply read a musical note or strum a guitar.

Rod notes that while academic achievement often dominates education conversations, the arts quietly build the traits that influence long-term success, such as persistence, creative discipline and the ability to collaborate. “Music forces you to slow down, practise and push through frustration,” he says. “Those habits serve students for life, no matter their career path.”

The journey begins with the compulsory Year 2 String program. For a single semester, every student explores a stringed instrument. After that, parents and students decide whether to join the voluntary music tutor program to continue studying that instrument.

In Year 5, all students join a semester-long concert band program and learn the basics of how to play the trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, flute or percussion.

Growing confidence and grit

The performance calendar is bold and ambitious.

While students are mastering the mechanics of their instrument, they are also stepping into the worlds of Debussy, Beethoven, John Coltrane and Led Zeppelin. This sharpens their musical instincts, builds resilience and develops the confidence to perform in front of classmates and a wider audience.

Haileybury’s recent concert was a sell-out at the 800-seat Melbourne Recital Centre. Students also took to the stage at jazz nights at Monash University in the same term. The much-loved final event for 2025, to be held on the evening of the last day of classes for the year, is Haileybury Carols at St Paul’s Cathedral in the heart of Melbourne.

Beyond the big stages, there is also a steady rhythm of smaller-scale choral and strings concerts, family soirees, and lunchtime performance opportunities.

Performances like these are critical. They teach young people essential life skills such as how to manage nerves, embrace uncertainty and rise to the moment.

Finding a balance

Achieving a balance between academic progress and creative expression is key.

“In a landscape often driven by academic outcomes and deciding future career paths, parents are looking for balance within their child’s education,” explains Rod.

“The music tutor program is an artistic endeavour as well as an intellectual and disciplined one. So much of our society is about short-term gains for short-term involvement, whereas music is a long, slow journey.”

As they learn, students build a trusted one-on-one connection with their tutor. Each is very much on their own musical journey, with some studying for a few years while others continue all the way through to VCE.

Rod believes this is no accident. Haileybury’s deliberate decision to hire working artists, not solely classroom teachers, is central to the program. “They’re not teaching theory from a textbook. They’re living it. Students feel that difference immediately,” he says.

“When a tutor has walked off a stage the night before, they bring a level of authenticity and relevance you can’t replicate.”

He also adds, “We’re not necessarily in the business of creating future professional musicians, but we want to contribute to a student’s school life with high-quality experiences.”

Those experiences stay with students well beyond their final performance. Long after they leave school, students can drive through the city, see St Paul’s Cathedral and say, ‘I sang there for our carols concert’, or walk past Melbourne Recital Centre with their own children and can say, ‘I performed in that venue’.”