A MAJOR new music and performance centre has been launched, giving young musicians a new home and the wider Cornish community a new cultural resource.

The Ode at Truro School brings together more than 1,700m² of new and refurbished space, including a multi-use performance hall, large rehearsal space, atrium, performance room, recording studio and specialist rock room.

The name draws on Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s poem about music makers and dreamers of dreams, and it is the most significant senior site development at Truro School since the Sir Ben Ainslie Sports Centre.

The centre is designed as a cultural resource for the wider Cornish community as well as for the School, with spaces available for community performances, partnerships and events. That ambition was at the heart of the opening evening, created in collaboration with the Cornwall Music Service Trust (CMST).

More than 170 performers took part, representing over 10 schools from around Cornwall alongside community groups, teachers and professional musicians. The Superstrings ensemble, made up of 50 musicians aged eight to 16, performed alongside Truro School musicians, while archive displays told the story of music at the school over many years.

Acclaimed opera singer Lynette Carveth (Alumna, 1984) joined composer, artist and sound designer Tom Middleton (Alumnus, 1989), in a special performance with Truro School musicians and cathedral choristers. The evening closed with a set from Truro School pupil DJs, supported by Tom Middleton.

Truro School headteacher Andy Johnson said: “At a time when access to arts venues and cultural opportunities is dwindling, The Ode shows what long-term investment in music and creativity can offer young people in Cornwall.

“Everybody in this room needs to be a dreamer of a dream, because this place is for you and it is for everybody in our county and beyond who can inspire a passion for music and the creative arts. This is what this is for. It is for everybody.”