In their own words

“This school is changing and has changed my life. Since I came to the Academy, I have come out of my listless teenage torpor. I have discovered joy, in small things, in the small actions of the day. I have discovered the wonderful virtue of willpower, which now lets me take my life in hand. I have found a new family that pulls me towards the Good. And, at last, friends, real ones.”

“Before I came to the Academy, Christ was nobody to me. Now I realise he is a friend.”

“I was in Year 9 and I wasn’t happy at my school. Now it’s my fourth and final year, and I see more and more that this place has changed me for the better and helped me grow as a person, spiritually, musically and academically. (…) Musically, our greatest chance is being able to learn and play every style of music, from Gregorian chant to the music of today. This whole project is magnificent, and I owe it a lot.”

“I think we don’t tell you this often enough, but it is truly enriching to work with adults in the relationship of trust I discovered at the Academy. Thank you for your dedication and for the trust you place in us! Thank you for being there every day, even when things aren’t going well!”

“Here, all the students get on well: boys in Year 5 can talk with those in the final year, and students can talk with the adults, who trust us.”

“I’m here mainly for the music. It’s also a chance to practise singing solos in front of an audience and to overcome my shyness.”

“I want to stay a third year because there’s always a good spirit: the older boys play with the younger ones, but boys of the same age can play together too. (…) Next year I’ll be one of the oldest in the junior choir: I’ll have responsibilities to help the new boys.”

“What do I feel at the Academy? Lots of things! But first of all, joy. The joy of being part of this great adventure! (…) A very full timetable, planned to the second: so being on time is very hard!”

“You won’t make better friends anywhere else, because what you are beginning to live here will only end when your life does. (…) For three years now I have been realising everything the Academy gave me: values, high standards at work and of myself, loyal friends, order and discipline, but above all a deep joy and a freedom of thought!”

“Hearing the boys sing in this sublime chapel reminded me of my first day at Liesse, when everything was still to be built. (…) The traditions are still there, the spirit has been kept within these new walls, the comradeship and brotherhood are still there!”

“Everything I have learnt at the Academy over three years is an immense treasure I will keep forever. The responsibilities I have help me to flourish and to become a man.”

“Far from losing heart, we must keep going, mustn’t we? That, at least, is what I learnt at the Academy!”

“I won’t hide that a little tear fell when I learnt you were leaving Liesse. But what a joy to know that Précigné is opening its doors!”

“‘Exceptional’: a word used by every parent we met at our son’s second start of the school year. The first time, I was intrigued; the second time, I wondered; the third time, I understood. And now, I’m saying it too.”

“Our son called to confess that he had broken a window by throwing a shoe. He went to see [the director of studies] to own up, and together they fixed it with cardboard and tape. What he took away from it moves us deeply: ‘They say a fault confessed is half forgiven, and I wasn’t even half told off!’ (…) Thank you for this partnership in his upbringing, which is a treasure for us as parents!”

“The times of prayer are true and deep, without being sanctimonious; the standards are firm without being authoritarian; the kindness is not softness, but always seeks to help each boy aim higher. (…) Seeing a young boy sweep the dirt from the corridors with a broom too big for him, ‘while waiting, because there’s no piano free’, or a sixth-former laying the breakfast table when it wasn’t his turn and he had to leave for his baccalauréat exam, is remarkable.”

“We asked him what he had liked best in his whole year between 12 and 13. Far from holiday memories, he answered: ‘the end-of-year concert’. (…) By showing him your trust, you made him feel valued and able to give more, and above all, it made him happy!”

“Joie de vivre, a sense of service, adaptability, an ease with community life: everything taught at the Academy was put into practice… Rest assured, he’s a teenager like any other: he managed to sulk and grumble, and to show more enthusiasm for the piano (lots of piano!) than for science.”

“Our son does nothing but sing when he comes home at weekends, and we hear tenor arias from Messiah on every floor… What a joy!”

“Thank you for the love of beauty you pass on to them, which makes their souls and hearts grow. Thank you for your high standards, which push them to give their best, to go beyond their limits and to fulfil themselves.”

“How could we not be moved seeing all these boys who look ‘happy in their own skin’, friendly, polite, glad to sing magnificent works, smiling, helpful…”

“Lockdown lets us enjoy his kind presence, his helpfulness and his steadiness. What a treat to live with such a well-balanced 14-year-old!”

“It is a real joy to see him so happy, for us who often saw him, when he was younger, struggle to find his place!”

“A member of staff asked our son to write down forty things he had achieved in the last few days, with ‘I’m great’ written next to them. That idea is worth any amount of therapy for building his self-confidence.”

“‘Mum, can I skip a year so I can go to Liesse next year?’ ‘But you’re in Year 3!’ ‘Yes, Mum… but what they live at Liesse is beautiful.’ (…) If our boys give as much as they receive at Liesse, they will change the world!”

“He very quickly started talking about his ‘home at Liesse’. If he comes home on Friday evening with a smile, he leaves on Sunday evening with the same smile. (…) The once-shy boy can now sing or play in public without fear.”

“We are particularly impressed by the quality and content of the end-of-term reports, which express this kindness through relevant words and advice.”

“We have only one regret, really: that he is our youngest!”

“What touched me most was really the welcome from the students and the adults. (…) The trust placed in the students struck me, and I think it is a real gift.”

“He came back joyful, peaceful and more grown-up. (…) Sing Alleluia and the Regina Cæli replaced Beethoven’s Fifth in the shower, not before he had tried to teach them to his little brothers and sisters.”

“They asked of their own accord to print the words of the prayer they had learnt in choir, and sang what they remembered to the whole family… Hard to believe.”

“He felt very valued, very welcome, and, to put it simply: unique, when he read your letter of acceptance.”

“I was floating half a metre off the ground, it was so beautiful, so finely sung, and these boys radiate such inner balance. A joy, in Bernanos’s sense of the word.”

“The diction, the dynamics, the breadth and the precision were all there. I felt great joy and admiration hearing the young soloists who, despite their young or very young age, sang parts usually given to adults, often professionals.”

“I didn’t know your academy at all before this concert. (…) Their wonderful voices and their smiles do you a world of good.”

“What a joy to see these boys so full of life, so joyful, so ‘comfortable in their own skin’ and so ‘at home in their time’! (…) You brought a real breath of beauty to our parish.”

“Discreet, polite, nothing to complain about! Except that they’re welcome back any time!”

“Well-mannered boys, ready to help and happy to talk about their school.”

“It does you good to see this music academy so gifted, so skilled and so joyful.”

“I discovered your school through its crowdfunding appeal… for ties, several years ago now. It is a real pleasure for me to help you as best I can, and every year a great joy to attend your Paris evening.”

“Our third son spent four incredible years there, which helped him grow and become a man, while letting him live his passion for singing and the oboe.”

“In these letters, music has an important place, but it doesn’t seem to be the main thing: there is much more, the blossoming of complete personalities. (…) Teaching young people so open, so glad to make an intellectual effort, was a very great joy, especially at the end of my career.”

“We teachers have the trust of our management and of our students. We are free to teach ‘in joy’. I know of no school where one can be so free.”

“For a teacher, nothing compares with the pleasure of working with students who constantly want to grow towards the Beautiful, the Good and the True.”

“It is the sign of a team truly devoted to the human person that it knows how to take care of the adults who work there.”

“Your young people have truly beautiful souls, which you have helped to grow wonderfully. In the older ones, you can sense future leaders, responsible and upstanding. (…) I was touched by their politeness, their smiles and their great sense of service.”

“They will leave your school with a well-built intellectual ‘backbone’, a clear soul and a solid faith sustained by Hope.”

“I wanted to warmly congratulate you on your concert at Saint-Roch. Beyond the undeniable musical quality and the demanding repertoire you chose, it was, I think, the most soulful Mozart Requiem I have ever heard. I wish all choirs (…) could reach this level of commitment from the children in the musical projects they take on.”

“Wednesday’s concert was magnificent. I felt a power and a unity that were uplifting. Thank you for contributing so much to building up our boys in soul, body and mind.”

“Words are not always enough to express certain thoughts. Our thanks can therefore only be a partial and incomplete sign of our gratitude. Thank you for offering the students a path where magnanimity, beauty and a love of effort go hand in hand. Thank you for your boldness!”