PHAB 24 Hours of Music: Full Programme Revealed

The Merchant Taylors’ and St Helen’s Schools Phab week is an annual residential camp that has been based on the school site of Merchant Taylors’ School for over 40 years. We organise a wide variety of fun and exciting activities, that take place on the school site and in and around London. The week aims to bring together young people with and without a physical or learning disability, and to provide respite for the guests’ long-term carers. This unique residential week involves 40 trained members of the schools’ Year 12 and 13 students, who take responsibility for entertaining and caring for the 20 disabled teenagers during the week. Activities have included horse-riding, climbing, petting zoos, fire engine visits, a trip to the West End and even indoor sky diving.

Over the PHAB 24 Hours of Music there are a whole raft of activities to give everyone a taste of music and a chance to get creative!

Extracurricular music rehearsals will open their doors for anyone to come in and enjoy. No matter your skill level, this is your chance to come along and have a go. Open rehearsals available include:

• Thursday 8th - Chamber Chior: A small chior made up of the very best singers at MTS
  • Where: Recital Hall
  • When: The Hour
• Friday 9th - Taylors' Brass: Taylors' Brass is the School's brass ensemble for more advanced brass players, including trumpets, cornets, trombones, euphoniums, tenor horns, French horns and tubas. 
  • Where: Recital Hall
  • When: Before School

• Friday 9th - Full Chior: A large-scale choir (over 100 singers) of each voice type - treble, alto, tenor, and bass. 
  • When: Recital Hall
  • When: The Hour

The event gets into full swing at 2pm on Thursday 8th and will run all the way through until Friday 9th at 2pm. Thursday daytime's activities include:

• 2:00pm: Taylors' Funk Soc concert in The Undercroft
• 2:50pm: Dixieland Band in the Recital Hall
• 3:40pm: Rock preview outside DE&T building

From here, we settle in to make music all the way through until morning. Why are we doing this? Because we love music? Yes. Because we’re dedicated (crazy?)? Yes. But most of all, to raise money for Phab. Phab guests will have a private concert from 3:50pm-5:30pm. After this you can tune in via the MTS social media accounts who will be streaming a many of the performances live from the Recital Hall. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram on the day for more details. Our evening sets include:

• 3:50pm: DJ Society set
• 6:00pm: Taylors' Funk Soc
• 8:30pm: Singers & Vocalists
• 9:30pm: Rock Concert
• 12:00am: Midnight Jazz

After 1pm, the bravest of musicians will keep playing all the way through to Friday morning which takes us into the final stretch of our 24 Hour musical marathon. The last mile. The final leg. You will be welcomed into school by the Thomas White Singers on the Long Drive and caffeine-fuelled soloists outside DE&T. Don't forget to bring money for Krispy Kremes during the Quarter! Here's what is going on, on Friday:

• 7:50am: Solo Recitals outside DE&T
• 8:20am: Thomas White Singers perform on The Long Drive
• 8:30am: Chaplain's Assembly featuring our Big Band
• 11:00am: Taylors' Funk Soc concert outside DE&T
• 11:00am: Rock Concert in the Quad with Krispy Kremes on sale
• 12:20pm: Thomas White Singers in the Inner Quad
• 12:30pm: Music in The Dining Hall

The culmination of our musical feat will start at 12:30pm and continue until 2:00pm: Music In The Dining Hall. This will feature bands and soloists you may have missed the previous day or overnight. At 2:30pm, the School Choir will emerge from its open rehearsal in the Recital Hall and make its way to the Quad, where it will lead the entire school in the singing of Homo Plantat — finally drawing the 24 Hours of Music 2024 to a close.

Even though the musicians have yet to start tuning up for the big day, you can donate already to fund PHABs amazing work by clicking here.