A NEW campaign has been launched to enlist the public to back the plans for a leading music school to move into the Old Royal High School in Edinburgh.
The St Mary's Music School has launched the Perfect Harmony campaign to continue to raise awareness of, and public support for, their desire to make the famous neo-classical, Thomas Hamilton-designed building on Calton Hill their new headquarters.
However, developers Duddingston House Properties, and the Urbanist Group, still wish to make the building into a hotel, and a second attempt at gaining planning permission will be made this summer.
Their plans for the building, which has been out of sustained use for 40 years, were rejected by the city council in 2015 but they have revised their plans, now scaled down, and it is believed they will be considered again later this year.
However the new campaign aims to cncourage members of the public, throughout Scotland, to show their support by writing to their MSP, MP or local councillor, if they live in Edinburgh, to lobby for the scheme.
The campaigners believe, with new council elections looming and the future of the building still moot, this is a "key moment" in its history.
The campaign also hopes to energise support for the move by utilising social media on Facebook and Twitter.
The music school's plans will cost around £35m but the project has been financially backed by the Dunard Fund, one of the key philanthropic funders of culture in Scotland.
It will allow the school to grow its number of pupils from 80 to 120, while extending its existing outreach programmes, masterclasses and workshops to more than 300 children from throughout the country.
The plans, which have consent but are currently on hold until the hotel plan's future is decided, will include a new 280-seat concert hall capable of staging more than 100 public performances a year.
William Gray Muir, Chairman of The Royal High School Preservation Trust, said: "We are not seeking to raise money, we are seeking to raise awareness of what an excellent fit it is, between Scotland's foremost music school and the opportunity that the building presents.
"It seems clear that this will protect the heritage of the building, and be an enormous filip to music teaching in Scotland.
"We very much hope it will happen - the consent is there, but the building is under option to the hotel developer, and they have a second one in and will be decided at some stage: if they fail to get planning consent, the music school would seem like the obvious use for this building."
A report found that moving St Mary’s Music School would contribute around £110m to the Edinburgh economy over the next 30 years.
Dr Kenneth Taylor, headteacher of St Mary’s Music School, added:
"The opportunity to move to the Old Royal High is too good to miss.
"It provides us with the rehearsal space we need coupled with an exciting performance space, which both in turn will allow us to develop our musical partnerships and extend our outreach programmes."
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