Leading musicians and composers have backed the planned relocation of a music school to the former Royal High School on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
Dame Evelyn Glennie, the composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and Simon Frith, chair of the Mercury Prize, are among the backers of the scheme which would see St Mary's Music School move into the building at the centre of the city.
Other supporters of the plan include Richard Hillier, the headmaster of the Yehudi Menuhin music school, and Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.
Edinburgh councillors have already rejected plans for the high school to be turned into a luxury hotel.
Sir Peter, who was master of the Queen's music from 2004-2014, and is founder of the St Magnus Festival in Orkney, said: "I strongly support the enlightened proposal to restore the former Royal High School as a home for St Mary's Music School.
"It is essential that we continue to invest in the future of specialist music education in this country."
Frith, chair of the leading music prize since 1992 and professor of music at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This is a wonderful opportunity for the school and would make a major contribution to the musical life of Edinburgh and Scotland.
"This is too good an opportunity to miss."
Professor Sharkey said: "I have long known of the excellence and importance of St Mary's...This new site would allow them to achieve their vision and serve the arts in Scotland."
Dame Evelyn, the leading percussionist, said she was hugely excited by the plans which she believes are a "massive opportunity for music and the arts in Scotland."
Developers are considering launching a legal challenge over the refusal of the £75 million hotel plan.
Urbanist Hotels and Duddingston House Properties, which submitted the plans to overhaul the derelict Thomas Hamilton neoclassical masterpiece on Calton Hill to the city council, are understood to be considering the move after the proposals they had consulted on were rejected by councillors last month.
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