Strong need to revitalise professional music education

Our conservatoriums of music have not done well since John Dawkins merged them into universities 20 years ago. They have become internationally uncompetitive in the teaching hours they provide, especially one-on-one hours, argues Ralph Evans.

I had the privilege to chair the taskforce that produced the report "20 Years after the Dawkins Report – Tertiary Music Education in Australia".  I am not part of the music world, but just one of the great unwashed, a business person who became involved through chairing the Board of Advice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Recently, I was prompted to reflect on the background to the situation the report examined.

I was privileged to attend a performance of Mahler’s 9th Symphony by the Conservatorium orchestra.  The conductor was maestro Imre Pallo, Pro-Dean at the Conservatorium and a member of our taskforce. 

It was obvious even with my limited knowledge that this symphony was very demanding indeed and a highly ambitious undertaking for Professor Pallo and the 100-odd young musicians.  In the event, it was fabulous.  The performers were exultant at what they had produced, and the audience was thrilled.

Enormous discipline is involved in being able to perform a major musical work like Mahler’s symphony.  This is first at the individual level of mastery of the instrument and then at the whole additional level of being able to perform coherently as a member of a large orchestra.

Learning this is not much like most university study.  Whether you are wrestling with ancient history or engineering subjects, as a student you can do all sorts of things to explore your potential (and the more the better), provided you deliver on assignments and at exam time.  Learning to be a top orchestral performer imposes demands of personal and group discipline and may be more akin to training in the SAS or a top rugby team – although most musicians wouldn’t be seen dead with a gun or in the sweat of a scrum.

So why did John Dawkins push the nation’s several conservatoria into their leading nearby universities twenty years ago, where they seem such an awkward fit?

I knew Minister Dawkins in those days, as I was at a government agency (I headed Austrade).  I liked him and regarded him as one of the leading lights in perhaps the most effective reformist administration Australia has ever had – the Hawke and Keating governments of 1983-1996.

I haven’t heard it from Mr Dawkins, but I surmise the following:  The main game in education at the time, and a very big game indeed, was a massive reform of the nation’s tertiary institutions to cope with profound changes in Australia and the global economy.  These demanded many more people with degrees than before. New universities had to be created, which for the most part was done by upgrading technical institutes and former colleges of advanced education.  Out on one side were these very small and highly specialised institutions, the music conservatoria, which (as ever) craved attention and wanted more resources.  The pragmatic answer was to merge them into the main established universities, which were much larger, and let them worry about their needs.

Two decades on, the effect is not good.  The universities have many more pressing priorities.  Slowly over time, they have squeezed the conservatoria.  Now, as the report demonstrates, Australian tertiary music education is underfunded by global comparison.  In particular, it is not able to provide the number of one-on-one teaching hours that the leading global music schools do, which is essential for the training of first-class musicians.

The short-term outlook may be especially bleak, as the universities lose some of the funds they have been earning from overseas students through the effect of our high dollar and increasing competition from other countries.

The report recommends that the Federal government should re-classify tertiary music performance education on the ASCED scale to a level like other subject areas that require much one-on-one teaching, like dental surgery.  This would help a lot.

Another option would be for the universities to treat their conservatoria as many American universities (including one I went to) do their football teams.  This is as a showcase and a means of fostering long-term connections to alumni and friends, behind which lies the not-too-hidden agenda of attracting gifts and benefactions.  A conservatorium is about performance.  It can put on a terrific event like the symphony concert I attended last night, something of which any university could be proud.

Ralph Evans has more than 20 years of experience as a director, having held top executive positions in several companies, venture funds, not-for profit organisations and government enterprises. He was CEO and Managing Director of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) from 2003 to 2007. Among the issues Ralph helped promote on behalf of the AICD were the CLERP 9 reforms of the Corporations Law, the review of corporate social responsibility by the Parliamentary Joint Committee and the review of the Australian Securities Exchange’s corporate governance principles. He was also involved in devising an innovative format for shareholder-friendly reports, the avoidance of unnecessary business regulation and means of achieving better engagement between corporations and shareholder advocates. Prior to joining AICD, Ralph was Managing Director of the Australian Trade Commission for five years (1991 – 1996).  He was concurrently a director of EFIC and a member of the Trade Policy Advisory Council and the National Investment Council. Ralph spent many years as a management consultant, first with McKinsey, as a partner in an Australian firm he helped found, Pappas Carter Evans and Koop, and later as a vice-president of the Boston Consulting Group, which acquired PCEK.  Ralph’s main interest has been in business strategy, be he also worked on public policy projects on related topics, including a major study of Australia’s manufacturing industry for the Australian Manufacturing Council.