Defining the 'contemporary conservatoire'

Standing outside the Royal College of Music, I still feel awe at the grandeur of its Victorian architecture. It’s a beautiful building and one that our RCM community is rightly proud of, but there’s no escaping that its imposing façade invokes many questions about the role of tradition, class and elitism in classical music. I can’t have been the only person to pause outside on their first visit, questioning whether I had permission to step over the threshold.

And yet that moment of hesitancy is at odds with my own lived experience, first studying at and now working in a conservatoire. Once inside, there is a thriving community of musical practice – looking to the past, present and future – that can be transformative for countless young musicians, not to mention audience members, visitors from all over the world and many others.

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It’s this dissonance between external perceptions and the internal aspirations and realities of conservatoires today that prompted my co-editors Professor Colin Lawson and Professor Rosie Perkins and I to embark on curating Inside the Contemporary Conservatoire: Critical Perspectives from the Royal College of Music, London. We sought to shine a light on the wide range of work that the College and many other conservatoires today, are engaged in and to reflect critically on the role of the conservatoire in our contemporary society. In short, we felt there was a great deal of activity and reflection taking place in conservatoires today that remains hidden from view.

Set against today’s bleak backdrop of cuts to UK arts funding and the erosion of state music education, reflection on the position of conservatoires in a wider context is certainly timely. Two symbiotic relationships call for urgent attention and action: music education pathways into conservatoire study and the graduate transition into their musical careers. With threats on both sides, it is more important than ever for conservatoires to harness our capacity to strengthen progression and support the wider musical ecology.

Change and evolution are recurring themes in the book; while the development of technical skill and artistry continue to be the foundation of study at the College, every graduate today requires agility, resourcefulness and outstanding communication skills to grow their creative career. Every musician is working in a world shaped by technology, whether they are recording artists, composers for screen, or using the internet to promote their own work. And if we want the classical music profession to truly thrive in the future, then conservatoires today have a responsibility to embed and embody positive change right at the start of students’ professional journey through improved representation, more equitable and ethical practices and increased awareness of sustainability. By empowering our graduates as advocates for their discipline, in turn they too can effect positive change.

Conservatoires have long been sites of creative exchange between professional musicians and their students, but today there is much more to the College’s learning environment than the one-directional master-apprentice model of teaching we have become known for. Today’s conservatoires are expanded hubs of creativity and innovation; connecting students and staff with music industry professionals, local communities, music hubs, cultural organisations, international partners, researchers and entrepreneurs. This type of connectivity for learning is informed by collaboration and dialogue, not least with our students themselves, who are experiencing very different financial, health and social circumstances to those of previous generations of student musicians – yet another reason not to stand still.

In the monodisciplinary environment of the College, it’s increasingly important for us to embrace the interdisciplinary nature of music. As one might expect, the majority of our students are performers, but a significant number are composers for the concert hall or for screen, researchers, music educators and performance scientists. We feel strongly that our students benefit greatly from being in a research-informed environment that nurtures curiosity about the intersections between music-making and health, society, technology, business and education. 

Looking to the future, in the short-term it is undoubtedly a challenging time for music in higher education. Our future creative industries deserve a flourishing higher education sector that offers young people diverse choices, enabling them to choose the path that is right for them, whether that might be a university music course or conservatoire study. The closure of any musical provision harms the music ecology and our nation’s cultural health.

Conservatoires form a vital element of choice and diversity in the UK higher education landscape, but there’s more we can do to celebrate and shout about the breadth of our work and the vital contribution we make to today’s creative economy. Each year nearly 400 exceptionally skilled musicians graduate from the College, ready to make their mark on the global cultural industries. To continue preparing them for their future careers requires an openness to evolution. Even in the few months since publication of Inside the Contemporary Conservatoire, the world has changed immeasurably. Today’s conservatoires need to be open to listening, reflecting, communicating, evolving and advocating for our wider music sector. We owe it to our students, the musicians of the future, to have a voice beyond our walls and take an active role in promoting the value of the arts in our society.

Inside the Contemporary Conservatoire: Critical Perspectives from the Royal College of Music, London is available to purchase from Routledge or Amazon (kindle edition also available).