The opening of the £57m state of the art flagship Birmingham Conservatoire (principal: Julian Lloyd Webber) prompted a thought provoking editorial in The Guardian.
Steven Greenall, chief executive of Warwick Music Group, believes that music education needs to focus on the base of the pyramid.
Music need not and should not become the ‘preserve of the privileged’ and neither should it be ‘skewed to the rich’.
The solution is to start at the bottom - not the middle or the top. By instilling a passion for music in the 4.5m primary children in the UK, then we will all have a good problem to solve. If we grow the base of the pyramid, there will be more children who catch the bug at an early age. That means more demand for music at secondary school, more children in state schools who can proceed into our national flagship ensembles and more wanting to go onto music college.
Cost will always be an issue but that can be resolved through innovation in both the manufacture of instruments, such as plastics in place of brass as we have pioneered, and the methods of teaching - sharing resources and skills across multiple schools.
Music is every bit as important as maths and languages. It helps shape minds that are more conducive to solving mathematical issues and it is in itself a universal language.
Britain has a musical heritage. We owe it to our children and ourselves to ensure we have a musical future too.
Kate Greenall
Kate has always had a love for music and after starting to play the clarinet aged six went on to study music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She joined Warwick Music Group in 2010 as Social Media Manager and now serves as Chief of Staff where her role is the day to day management of the team. She ensures activities are streamlined within the organisation, supporting the priorities of the business to help it grow. She now spends most of my spare time supporting my three children as they learn their own instruments!
