The giant, gleaming stainless steel gates and railings of Rochester Independent College are an impressive sight. But they have a secret. Inside they are a complex and beautiful musical instrument with the tonal range of an entire orchestra.

RIC takes as its unofficial mascot not an emblem of classical myth but a flying pig, originally a riposte to the cynicism that greeted the College's chances of success when it was founded in 1984 and now celebrating the idea that anything is possible for our students.

The flying pig has been immortalised in a magnificent piece of public art. The gates and railings are decorated with six gleaming pig sculptures, ground, welded and polished by sound sculptor Henry Dagg, alongside clover leaves, a mathematical equation and a Middle English inscription. Members of The City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra gave the first ever public performance on the gates. They performed "Pigs with altitude" an original composition, commissnioned specially for the event by RIC.