The Mathieson Music School

The Mathieson Music School

Sakaripota Main Road, P. O. Thakurpukur, Kalagachia, Kolkata 700 063, India

Calcutta/Kolkata

Giving deprived Indian children a rounded education and a future through music

History and construction of the School

Helping the School

UK Tours 1996 andd 2000

Administration of the Mathieson Music Trust and the Teaching Staff at the school

Portraits of pupils by visiting photographer Tom Allwood

News and coming events

The children are selected on a basis of need, coming from destitute, illiterate and often emotionally disturbed backgrounds. For many, the school offers the first happy experiences of their childhood.
"Anyone visiting the school cannot but be struck by the cheerful friendliness of the children, and their delight in learning and in showing you what they can do."
Elizabeth Marden M.A. (Retired English Lecturer and Teacher Trainer)

Click here to read her full report of her visit
"Their behaviour was so exemplary, their interest in everything so genuine and their pride in their school so evident..."
Susan-Jennifer Bidmead, visitor to the school in 2007

Click here to read her report of her visit

The oldest and the youngest pupil at the school: Mitali Makhala, Head Girl, aged 17, and Ambika Mondol, aged 7

"These children are so eager to learn" Bertie Dixon, a Bristol University graduate who recently spent 6 weeks helping at the school

Click here to read his full report of his visit

"We weren't prepared for the incredible impact (the children) would have on us, as musicians and as people"

Monica Leiher, teacher from Christ's Hospital School,UK reports on the school's exchange visit.

Click here to read her report of their visit

Click here to read about the cultural exchange between Christ's Hospital school amd the Mathieson Music School.

Musical training not only furnishes the children with a way of expressing themselves, but offers them the possibility of securing life-long employment; the flourishing Indian film industry, military establishments, hotel and entertainment sectors are in need of Indians literate in Western music, and a trained musician has an earning potential two or three times that of the average Indian school leaver.

The school provides the children with all their physical needs - nourishing meals, uniforms, clean dormitories, sanitary plumbing - as well as recreational and educational needs: tuition in all subjects prescribed by the Indian Government curriculum, as well as instruction in both Western and Indian classical music: instrumental lessons, singing, and traditional dancing.

Apart from their normal school activities, the children practise performance skills, giving daily music and dancing concerts in preparation for the public performances they frequently give in Calcutta and abroad.

Instruction is in the English language. The regular teaching staff is augmented from time to time by qualified teachers from the UK who go out at their own expense to donate their varied skills, and by British gap year students who volunteer to help with the teaching and musical instruction. This East/West dimension gives the Mathieson pupils educational benefits unavailable in other Indian schools and is a valuable contribution to the children's development.

"I have never come across such motivated children anywhere" said Miss Sylvia Morris, Headteacher of Southwark Cathedral School, London, after spending three weeks teaching the Mathieson children in Calcutta, during her sabbatical year.