Summer School Venue

bryanston-house
Bryanston House

Our venue is Bryanston School. The School occupies a magnificent 400 acre estate in Dorset, just outside the Georgian market town of Blandford Forum. The main building, a palatial country house in red brick banded with Portland stone, was designed for the Portman family by Norman Shaw and completed in 1897.

Bryanston House provides the School with its centre. The main corridor, which is one hundred yards long, serves the principal rooms of the house. Accommodation is in the main house or one of the other houses nearby.

Aerial view Bryanston grounds
Bryanston grounds

The school has excellent leisure facilities and if your interest is tennis (you can play on grass courts) or swimming (a new, indoor pool) or just strolling in the grounds it is all there for spare moments when you are not at rehearsals or chorus practice.

There is a huge Tesco and GP facilities locally, should you need them.

coade-hall
The Coade Theatre

Main rehearsals and the public performances are held in the Coade Theatre. This 600-seat stand alone theatre is extremely well equipped with a good sized, fully working stage and excellent technical facilities.

The final six days of summer school are Festival week and all your hard work is put into 8 fully-staged performances given to packed houses of enthusiastic audiences who come from all over the UK. They have come to see world-class opera in the heart of Dorset – and you are a celebrated part of that.

Elder Concert Hall
Elder Concert Hall

In 2014 Bryanston opened a new multi-million pound music school including the 300-seat Elder Concert Hall, which we use for chorus and production rehearsals, recitals and auditions.

The hall was named after former pupil and celebrated conductor, Sir Mark Elder who is a long time friend of Dorset Opera.

The music school has plenty of additional well-equipped rehearsal spaces and rooms for private practice.

virtual-tour
Virtual tour

Take a VIRTUAL TOUR of Bryanston

Have a virtual look around the main school building and grounds, the music facilities, swimming pool and accommodation houses.

bryanston-catering-team-dorset-opera
Bryanston catering team

Bryanston is proud of the quality of food it provides. Special diets are not a problem – the staff go out of their way to accommodate everyone – and there is plenty of choice. Meals are eaten in the spacious school refectory – and on sunny days many like to eat outside on the terraces.

There is also a bar and it’s on-site Costa café for those cups of coffee and cakes needed to restore the inner self.