A happy life is a creative life: why every child needs music – event writeup
Ever since Darren Henley's review of music education in 2011 and the furore thereafter concerning cuts, curriculum and the government's National Plan for Music, roundtables and symposiums on the subject have been plentiful. The latest was held recently at the centre of the London Symphony Orchestra's music education programme, St Luke's on Old Street, by the Worshipful Company of Musicians (WCM).
Featuring a stellar panel that included the LSO's own managing director Kathryn McDowell, Classic FM's Darren Henley and Richard Morisson of The Times, the debate was given the cheerful title, A Happy Life is a Creative Life: Why Every Child Needs Music.
I was buoyed by the heartening voices of the LSO's junior and senior youth choirs, who opened the event. Someone had played a blinder: music and children at a debate on music education. They were fabulous, as were the ensembles that followed – all served to hammer home what a thoroughly good thing it is when children, inspired by great teaching, engage in music-making.
But those in the room knew this already; educators and musicians have rallied to expound the benefits of a good musical education. These arguments have been rehearsed to death. The problem is: why has the argument not been won? In an attempt to answer this, the WCM symposium provided a rather downcast deconstruction of the state of music education in the UK, in which panel members struggled to retain a broadly positive tone, eventually becoming flooded by questions from the floor as the blame game started.
Government, heads, parents, teachers and Ofsted were all thrown into the firing line. Morrison began proceedings by condemning the recent advice from the Department for Education that local authorities withdraw financial support for already "hobbled" music hubs. He continued with sardonic swipes at culture minister Sajid Javid, and his opposite number Harriet Harman, for making audience diversity a "central plank" of arts policy ahead of forming working links with the department.
Henley began by reflecting on his 2011 review in the context of recent developments in music education. "It was made clear to me that we weren't as a sector going to enjoy a period of public spending that was going to get bigger," he said. "I wanted to find a system that would get the most amount of money to the widest possible number of children."
Part of this system was, of course, the creation of music hubs: a concept that initially received qualified support from most people but has since been condemned by Ofsted for its "failure to improve music education for all". Not the fault of the idea, for there is good sense in avoiding both oversubscription and under-provision of music education through better communication between providers, but rather an inevitability given increasingly damaging cuts to already underfunded hubs.
Henley rightly cited the excellent work of the Manchester music hub as a model for how the idea can work, although admitted that "in other areas of the country we need to do more".
McDowell highlighted the well-recognised work of LSO Discovery with children in east London. The problem is really not with arts organisations. School projects such as the BBC's Ten Pieces and In Harmony Opera North, working with young people in Leeds, attest to the frankly astounding work going on country-wide to engage young people from all backgrounds in music.
Leslie East, chief executive of ABRSM, switched focus, suggesting that a lack of follow-through on first access projects has led to a decline in state school students continuing with music lessons in a "coherent, constructive, progressive way … because of a lack of funding".
Questions from the audience became increasingly dominated by the issue of music provision in state schools. Henley called for arts leaders to take the argument to those heads who, in the words of Morrison, view time dedicated to music as being "frittered away" when it could be spent on science or maths. One audience member bemoaned an alleged lack of drive by parents to put pressure on state school governing bodies to provide for a cultural education.
There were some topics left unanswered by the panel. What about the changes to school league tables and the irresponsible rhetoric from government and some top universities that bullied some schools into "prioritising" subjects at the expense of music? That same rhetoric scared parents from disadvantaged areas into believing that choices such as music for their children were unhelpful in escaping from a negative economic narrative.
What about the withdrawal of entitlement funding for sixth form musical enrichment? Where were the success stories of the remarkable work going on in state music departments swimming against the tide? It was certainly a shame not to see a state school represented on the panel and perhaps these issues would have been more thoroughly examined had that been the case.
This was a panel and an audience passionately committed to increasing the quality and breadth of music education. It was not a room full of heads, governors and ministers. Morrison said we must "keep on banging the drum" to those on the frontline of delivery and decision-making in schools. Quite right, but they've got to be in the room to hear it.
Join our community of arts, culture and creative professionals by signing up free to the Guardian Culture Pros Network.