Evolving Educational Structures in Music
I’ve gone through higher education receiving two degrees in instrumental performance and when I reflect back on my experiences, I have some very mixed feelings. I loved my private teachers - I owe them everything to my success as a musician. Everything else however, I think needs to change. The top notch conservatories, colleges, and universities have created an environment that excludes many passions and dreams of young students where those very dreams are the reasons why they are in those schools in the first place. I’ve had colleagues deal with crippling self-doubt and sometimes quit music altogether because they believe their aspirations are unreachable. Colleagues explain a similar narrative where they are forced to focus on one thing and after completion of the degree program, they require multiple skill sets that were shunned upon during their studies. What does it mean to be a professional musician in current day society? Are our educational institutions trying to reflect that to prepare the next generation of artists for the future? I’d say most definitely absolutely positively they are not. And it’s very unfortunate.
How can we restructure them? I don’t have all the answers but below are some perspectives that could really bring positive change.
Be able to explore:
Students need the possibility to explore their options within music. We often celebrate the music of J.S. Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms among many others who did not simply only compose music. They performed, taught, conducted, sang, were art administrators and art advocates in their communities all while producing some of the most cherished works to this day. Then why do conservatories, universities, and colleges tell students to pick one? We tell students to put their talents all in one basket and be the best at that one thing. Yet, later after graduation, students often need the skill sets that weren't allowed to be explored during college. This is mostly because musicians have never only done one skill within the music profession.
How to build communities:
In college, students will mostly learn the technical aspects of playing their instruments at the highest possible level. They’ll learn most of the repertoire and get exposed to even more chamber and orchestral music along the way. They’ll learn backgrounds in history, theory, ear training, and piano to name a few. However, for many (maybe everyone) will not learn how to bring communities together with music. What purpose does all the other aspects (history, theory, ear training, etc.) of music education have if you don’t know how to use them to bring people together? How does that make classical music sustainable and realistic in the sense of education? Why produce knowledgable musicians in theoretical aspects of classical music if they leave school not knowing how to connect with audiences, make music relatable, or simply bring audiences in for concerts? How to build communities around music is an essential skill to know for all young musicians, no matter what path they might take. We need community engagement programs at educational institutions to be more integrated and diverse to help facilitate the learning possibilities for their students.
Non-music courses:
Musicians need perspective on the world - it makes what we perform/study/rehearse/broadcast even more relevant for audiences in all communities across the planet. When I was in college, the most helpful class I ever took was a global issues debate course. We met twice a week and our professor would introduce a topic each week letting us form our own opinions. I’m by no means a debater. But I listen really well - and that’s exactly what I did. The other students in the course were from all different majors throughout the university including agriculture, mathematics, economics, engineering, nursing, and fashion design to name a few. It was incredibly insightful how we all came from different backgrounds and focus areas. It enabled each individual to bring out differing perspectives to topics I would never experience or even know about. It was as if we created a mini-community and we were trying to solve these global issues together collecting from our own individual backgrounds. Every time I walked out of that class I had a completely different outlook on life. I saw the world differently each week. I believe it helped me channel my music-making to become more relevant and relatable to audiences. To this very day, I think back on the experiences in that class and how it has made me a better human being and musician. Youth need these perspectives and I believe it’s essential to have world view points on current global issues for artists. As musicians, we need to fully understand the communities throughout the world to reach them the most effectively (this also means diversifying your arts organizations, but I’ll get into that another time).
Teaching:
Students need to teach younger students. We can all agree, when we teach something, we understand it even more than we thought before. If educational institutions paired college students with beginners/intermediates of their same instrument, there becomes a huge learning opportunity for both sides. The student being taught learns how to execute their instrument at a higher level while the college student then learns how to distill their own knowledge to those younger. This process will also let college students sharpen skills that can be built upon. Even more so, this opportunity presents an excellent example of creating a stronger community around music within an educational institution. The involvement of college students and younger students learning together in the community unites others using music.
Environment:
Educational communities need to be supportive and collective. Educational institutions should discourage the act of competition within the student environment. Competitive environments only become further destructive mentally and emotionally to students, which often have devastating long-term effects. These types of environments create division and opportunities to belittle others. To be truly inclusive, we must create a supportive community environment that collects around the principles of belonging. Otherwise, learning becomes about survival and not about ones own beliefs or aspirations to improve. Also, students who are more advanced will always be rewarded while those who are always trying to be better will be discouraged.
Students need mentors other than private teachers:
Private teachers in many music departments have linear paths in music and usually only know how to make a student be similar to their own career paths. In students’ best interest, if their teacher might not know how to form a career best suited for them, the educational institution should provide a career mentor to help in their further development. Say, for instance, a student wants to become an orchestra musician. People would often recommend students to study with someone with an orchestral background in order to be successful in that path. However, say the student realizes that orchestral playing actually is not the best option for them. Although, their teacher has only been an orchestra musician during their whole careers and every other opportunity they’ve obtained came from that position in their orchestra. The narrative often goes, “Everything I’m able to do was because of the orchestra job I won so I think if you want to play chamber music, solo, and teach, you should really consider getting an orchestra job.” Of course, this isn’t the case for all orchestral musicians who teach in higher education. There are incredible teachers out there who are orchestral musicians and give extremely relevant career advice. Although, sometimes I’ve heard that this is advice their teachers have given to students. The student becomes convinced in order to diversify their interests, they must specifically focus on auditioning for orchestras in order to do what they want with music. This can bring up several problems:
We end up having groups of musicians employed by orchestras that actually do not want to play in orchestra. Orchestras are supposed to be these uplifting motivators that are embedded in communities to bring people together. If the musicians they employ do not really want to be there, how can orchestras fulfill their sole missions? It’s almost impossible and I see it all the time when I step-in for a concert with orchestras around the country. Some musicians do not want to be there and therefore cannot always connect with audiences effectively.
‘Winning’ a job becomes the be all end all. It becomes this obsessive dream that never existed in order to do what we really care about in music, which is such a shame. Many of my colleagues become discouraged and frustrated with what their life looks like hopping from audition to audition. They are not being successful in auditions because they do not qualify, it’s because they should be doing something else entirely in music. There are so many qualified musicians out there that do not have orchestra jobs and could do just as well as the ones currently in those orchestral positions.
Out of focus values in classical music. When ‘making it’ boils down to a three round audition, people lose touch with why they started music in the first place. It takes the purpose of making music out of context when one tries to achieve something that has little meaning in order to do bigger and greater things. In turn, it becomes a process and an obstacle to overcome only to truly fulfill the void in musicians lives. Where are the dreams that fueled youths’ passions? Should our profession really look this way? How can we make that better?
Furthers elitism in classical music. When musicians who obviously qualify for a position but cannot be successful because of a hiring process, a since of elitism gets created that excludes many striving for success. If there’s anything in classical music that we don’t need, it’s elitism. Something that I never understood was how we worry about reaching new audiences and carrying on the classical music tradition - however, all the processes to success become only for those that were lucky enough to have access to it and support from the beginning. How does that make it possible to create communities where music can truly thrive? We are pushing away musicians that have the talent and have overcome many obstacles to be where they are in the first place. The process of getting a position in many institutions becomes a vicious cycle of defeat. Many times, musicians stop doing it all together and pursue other non-musical paths - even though their dreams and abilities could achieve great things in the music field.
Mental Health. Combining all the above mentioned issues, we have to talk about all the mental effects this brings over time. One starts questioning if what we are doing even matters. Or, do I even want to become a musician. Because one might still believe, even going through all of this, that the only way to success and having a career in music is about winning that audition. Musicians grapple with these conflicting principles about how to move forward and be happy. It’s almost impossible for most and it truly hinders the classical music world in a big way. These can all be avoided with the best avenues of support and mentorship, but it needs to start in our higher educational structures or else I believe there will be huge consequences.
Why are dreams, and the very dreams that got students into the most prestigious music schools, not cultivated? Why do colleges require students to feel like only a few paths exist when in reality their dreams could be their path to success. Higher education for music needs to restructure their curriculums to provide students the opportunities to explore all that’s possible - including their dreams!! Youth want to be empowered and do great things - so show them how and let’s not discourage youth into thinking their dreams are unreachable.
These few suggestions are surprisingly not integrated in most, if not all, music educational programs across the country. There are of course other possibilities to improve educational structures, and these are only a few. In future posts on this blog, I hope to explore these possibilities in even more detail. We need better educational structures to be truly inclusive and provide students from all communities the most success in furthering their own dreams.
For comments, questions, or if your organization is struggling with these issues, email me at crobinsonviolin@gmail.com.
Thank you all and take care!!