Music lovers are warning music education is on the rocks — and they want the trend reversed before it’s too late.
Sanja Domazet raised the issue on the OurSay/Crikey “Grill the Independents forum,” which gives people the chance to post, vote and comment on questions that will be put to the lower house independents by Crikey next month. Domazet’s question sits at No.3 with more than 750 votes:
“Music education is grossly underfunded in Australia, both in schools and more recently in cuts to the tertiary sector (such as the School of Music at ANU). How can we ensure that musicians receive the training opportunities necessary to nurture their talent and skills?”
Crikey contacted Domazet, a music student at the University of Melbourne, who is speaking out because “the tertiary music industry is just not valued by the government — it is thought that classical music is dying out and that nobody cares to listen or play it any more”.
“The lack of government funding is definitely off-putting, but it also means that we are motivated to get it back to where it was, to the time when music was appreciated and recognised as a valuable and essential element to the national tertiary curriculum,” she said.
An international benchmarking project conducted by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2011 found that Australia conservatoria are 40% underfunded compared to their counterparts — yet are expected to deliver results of equal quality.
Music education represents less than 2% of Australian university budgets. It is labour and resource intensive; teaching spaces must be fitted with suitable acoustic properties and soundproofing, while the infrastructure for ensemble rehearsals, performances and master classes, in addition to high-quality recording equipment and instruments, requires maintenance.
Professor Huib Schippers, director of the Queensland Conservatorium at Queensland’s Griffith University, says the high cost of delivering quality tertiary music teaching means it should be funded more like dentistry and medicine than the current arrangement where it is funded like foreign languages, allied health and other art forms.
“In short, the current funding model fails to account for the higher costs incurred by high-quality music tuition,” he told Crikey. He says the gradual cross-subsidisation of music education in Australia has led to mediocre results.
“The money delivers the program, but it does not allow universities and institutions to produce high results. Music is an industry in which you must invest in order to reach a high degree of professionalism.”
Schippers says almost all school music departments are torn between offering mediocre programs that are cheap to run, and training students to the elite level that merits international recognition. “For now musical institutions must rely upon the kindness of vice-chancellors for funding,” he said.
It seems not all are so kind. In June, the Australian National University confirmed it would be axing one of its two undergraduate degrees and cutting jobs (23 academic and nine administrative staff) as part of a major restructure of its School of Music. One-on-one instrument and voice teaching will be outsourced, rather than being taught by specialist staff within its school. The department’s debt is predicted to reach a hefty $2.9 million this year.
So what does the future hold for Australia’s young musicians? “As it stands, the government is not going to increase any aspect of its funding before it reaches a surplus, which could be any number of years away,” Shippers said.
Although the base funding review acknowledged that funding for tertiary music education was inadequate, it did not give an indication about when (or even if) it would be rectified. In the meantime, the erosion of tertiary music faculties across the nation looks set to continue.
Not all music education need or even should be elite preparation of performers. In view of the limited demand for professional performing musicians Australia arguably has too many conservatoriums which have too many student places.
There is much in this piece that I find confusing, not least the apparent restriction of ‘music’ to the category of so called classical music. While learning about music, learning to play it and compose it is a healthy activity for everybody inclined towards music, the idea that music itself needs massive government funding, without which it will ‘die’, simply seems absurd to me.
Most musicians I have ever known, including myself, have spent lives involved with music without the benefit of any government funding. Music at heart is a proactive pursuit that mostly benefits those who play instruments.
There is certainly no shortage of music. Music is its many genres proliferates in all generations simply because many human beings like playing it, and many like listening to it. Music education mostly benefits those few who will earn their daily bread from playing it professionally. Unlike doctors or teachers, only a few musicians will actually do this. Like elite sportspeople, professional musicians form only a small minority of those exposed to it as children and young adults.
Musical composition is largely inspirational and despite the plethora of musical training establishments in our culture, only a few succeed in creating compositions that are successful in the marketplace. As for the ‘orthodox’ genre of classical music which this article appears to be talking about, we could lose 80% of it without any significant loss to the general fabric of our cultural heritage.
Classical music, its presentation if not its composition, has dominated the culture during my lifetime at least as far as government funds expended on it is concerned. This has always seemed to me more about cultural self-esteem rather than the quality of the music. And certainly has little to do with the quality of performance.
The presentation of classical music is very expensive and it is surely only a matter of time before governments stop underwriting public performances of music that are seldom economically self sustaining.
This seems to work on the premise that if you throw lots of money at music education, you’ll get music superstars out the other end. Perhaps. On the other hand, fertilise weeds and you just get bigger weeds that outgrow the plants you wanted.
Music Education always seems to mean education in classical music, instruments and theory. The relevance to most people of this genre rests with the soundtracks and background noise of movies and clinics, and occasionally a musical.
We need to move beyond the taxpayer funding of a minority music interest and allow it reach its own level of reach with the market forces of supply and demand.
Most people, and especially school students, would rather listen to “Boy and Bear” rather then “Beethoven”, so why can’t modern musical education drag itself into the century in which most of us live.
It is disappointing to see the lack of support for this cause which is so important to many artists, many of whom dedicate their lives to this pursuit against all odds. There is nowhere near enough money devoted to music education and more and more music departments in public schools are being neglected despite proven benefits for young, developing minds.
Not only does music have proven benefits for the brain and mental health, but every performance displays dedicated artists’ years of training honing their skills, and every composition denotes considerable cultural development – once the most valued aspect of society. It is a language that all can understand and appreciate.
The severe cuts to the ANU music department is far from the first battle young musicians have had to face. On the contrary, it is an ever-continuing struggle as the government fails to recognise the support required and frequently attempts to make up for high spending in other departments by reducing funds of an industry already in trouble. ANAM, our most esteemed performance training course was almost closed in 2009, and remains in financial difficulty. Orchestra Victoria was threatened to be turned into a casual orchestra only last year, a mistake which would have significantly reduced the standard of Australia’s leading ballet and opera orchestra. And Melbourne Youth Music, one of our highest quality ensemble training programs for young musicians remains uncertain of ongoing funding.
There is a reason that each year Australian cities rate low on culture, it is simply not respected anymore because our profit-oriented society doesn’t see its worth. Simply because it takes time and energy to produce it at a high quality, it is neglected due to the cost associated. Yet few have a problem with spending large figures on the already overfunded sport industry.
Music should be appreciated for the joy it brings and the lives it touches, rather than dismissed as not worth the effort.