The Music Department gives several major concerts each year, numerous smaller evening recitals and many other performances besides. These events, held both at the School and at prestigious venues in London and beyond, ensure that pupils at the Vaughan are offered remarkable performing opportunities.
Michaelmas term sees the annual celebration of the Patron Saint of music, St. Cecilia, whose Feast Day is marked by a large-scale choral orchestral concert. In addition, in recent years the School has held a choral concert in early December at St James’s, Spanish Place: repertoire performed has included Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Verdi Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Handel’s Messiah. A traditional Service of Lessons and Carols, held at Our Lady of Victories Church, Kensington ends the term. The Lent Term includes the Spring Instrumental Concert and the Easter Concert. The Spring Concert give the First Orchestra opportunity to perform at length whilst the Easter Concert is often held at St John’s, Smith Square or Cadogan Hall. The less formal Summer Concert ends the year, complete with refreshments and music from the Big Band.
Since 2008 the School has enjoyed a formal partnership with Southbank Sinfonia, London's orchestra of young professionals: two concerts, with Southbank Sinfonia performing alongside the Vaughan's Chamber Orchestra, have been given in April 2009 and May 2010 at Cadogan Hall, with performances of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Dvorak's New World Symphony the main works. This year's project will see the two Orchestras prepare Brahms's Second Symphony for a concert also at Cadogan Hall on 2 May 2011.
Each term there is a Junior Concert where the youngest boys have the opportunity to develop their performance skills. An Early Evening Recital Series runs throughout the year and allows soloists and chamber groups to perform. In the Lent Term the Department runs the Annual Music Competition, with heats leading to a final: the competition is judged by a panel of distinguished visiting adjudicators.
In addition, the Schola Cantorum and the Big Band are especially busy providing music at various services and events in and around London. A particular highlight for the Schola Cantorum is the annual visit to Westminster Cathedral whilst the Big Band appears frequently at The Bull's Head, Barnes, London's oldest and most famous jazz venue.
Pupils frequently work with professional groups outside of School, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Choir of London, the Bach, Choir, Opera Holland Park, English National Opera and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
At the end of each School year the Music Department collaborates with the School's English Department to stage a full-scale musical. Recent productions have been as follows:
- 1995 Guys and Dolls
- 1996 Nicholas Nickleby
- 1997 Oklahoma!
- 1998 Return to the Forbidden Planet
- 1999 Oliver!
- 2000 Guys and Dolls
- 2001 Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
- 2002 West Side Story
- 2003 The Importance of Being Earnest
- 2004 Kiss Me Kate
- 2005 Bugsy Malone
- 2005 My Fair Lady
- 2006 Oklahoma!
- 2007 Crazy For You
- 2008 Anything Goes
- 2009 Carousel
- 2010 Sweeney Todd
The Music Department organises at least one foreign tour each year. Recent trips have been as follows:
- 1999 Big Band Tour of Paris
- 2000 Schola Cantorum Tour to Paris
- 2001 Big Band Tour to Barcelona
- 2002 Schola Cantorum Tour to Rome
- 2003 Big Band Tour to Holland
- 2004 School Choir and Orchestra Tour to Germany
- 2005 Schola Cantorum Tour to Rome and Assisi
- 2006 School Choir and Big Band Tour to the USA
- 2007 Schola Cantorum Tour to Barcelona
- 2007 Schola Cantorum Tour to Paris
- 2008 School Choir and Orchestra Tour to Austria
- 2008 Schola Cantorum Tour to Venice
- 2010 School Choir and Orchestra Tour to Prague
Photos from some of these trips can be seen in the Music Gallery.