Conservatoires — a highly specialised shop
Day 3: Reflective Conservatoire Conference 2018
Today started with a big smile. It was induced by the positive energies flowing from the stage of today’s keynote in the Milton Court Theatre, so different from those coming from the Concert Hall platform yesterday.
Drama spoke to us directly, with humour, in a relaxed manner but with such a positive message of artists already heavily engaged in and with society. “Talk all you like about the Reflective Conservatoire, but isn’t it a closed shop?” was one remark.
The shop being referred to was the funding system of conservatoires compared with other areas of higher education, but I began to think about and wonder how much is our and other conservatoires a closed shop, or rather a highly specialised shop concentrating largely in expensive antiques?
However, the work in curriculum design and practice described in the presentation from Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, brought another smile and showed that somewhere in the world new thinking was producing new things and beginning to open up their shop into stocking locally made produce from many cultures.
Again, issues of post-colonialism were raised then and in two other stimulating papers, one from the doctoral programme here at the Guildhall School and the other from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Each was eloquent in its own way, showing that those working as teachers are questioning their own behaviours as much as those of their students, and indeed that their situation was truly reflective.
The final huge smile of the day was watching and listening to students improvising and performing with such commitment, expertise and relaxation, despite some being under the watchful eyes and ears of their instrumental teachers.
The presentation also involved a neuroscientist from Imperial College London, whose experiments involving the same players graphically showed that an improvising approach to performance of the canonic repertoire is literally good for your health.
As I left this evening I encountered a senior colleague who had to hurry away, but their final question as they hit the stairs was “Yes George, but what about the canon?”
Too late, as ever, I was going to reply’ “Fire it!” But he was gone.
This article was written by George Odam, who is blogging daily from the Reflective Conservatoire Conference 2018.
George Odam is a teacher, composer, writer, editor and lecturer. In a wide ranging career, he has held senior roles at Guildhall School Music and Drama and Bath Spa University. His compositions includes opera, choral and vocal, orchestral and chamber works.
The Reflective Conservatoire Conference: Artists as Citizens, takes place from 20–23 February at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.
The international conference brings together leading performers, teachers and researchers from all over the world to address the key issues in Higher Education within music and drama, explored through a series of performances, practical workshops, keynote speeches, curated sessions, seminars and round-table discussions.
