At the Federation of Music Services annual conference in Leeds, one topic that saw delegates enjoying animated discussions between sessions was the relationship between music education and the wider agenda for culture and the arts.
Leeds Children's Services is one of ten organisations leading pilot initiatives for Find Your Talent, the £25m government programme that aims to give children at least five hours of high quality cultural activity a week. We asked Paul Kaiserman, Director of Artforms Education Leeds (pictured left, with Lord Adonis), how we are going to achieve the ambition of a musical nation.
MM: What was your response to the speakers' vision of a musical nation?
PK: I thought it was hugely positive. In relation to music education, there are challenges too, especially around Key Stage 3, that came out quite clearly. But I think that for music services particularly this is our moment to get it right. We aren't going to have another opportunity like this and I think that there is a huge shift and certainly a distinct willingness to get it right.
Is there the capacity to get it right?
There's a big variation across the country from one music service to another. There's a variation in the capacity to be able to build partnerships, which is very intensive, and very time intensive, and to be able to do the very exciting developmental work as well. But overall, this is an absolutely fantastic time.
How does this relate to the wider cultural offer?
What's fascinating for me is that just two days ago in London, as one of the ten pilots for the Find Your Talent cultural offer, we heard exactly the same messages about aspiration for the next three years. The emphasis there too was on partnerships and the need for us to provide really powerful stories for government to influence the next spending round etc., but this time in relation to arts and culture for every child from 0 to 19. We're hearing the same messages about universal entitlement etc., which is wonderful, but what's the relationship between what's happening in music and a cultural and artistic entitlement for every child? That's my big question.
Is it a question that you can begin to answer?
I guess it's a challenge (and maybe we'll find this out within each of the pilot areas for the cultural offer) to find connections between these two things. Music has got a huge amount to offer, and I think a responsibility, which many of my colleagues here may not yet understand. That responsibility is that, given all these resources we've got, what can we do to support those less resourced areas of arts and cultural activity. Do we see ourselves as part of that? I passionately believe that yes, we do. So that's my big challenge.
Is there something around the mainstream popularity of musical theatre that could be a springboard to partnership between different art forms?
Yes, I think there is something missing. It could be musical theatre, but it could be a whole raft of things. What we're missing here is what's happening with Wider Opportunities. Why is Wider Opportunities so incredibly successful? It's because we are offering musical experiences, instrumental and singing opportunities, during the school day at the place where we can get to all children: in the classroom. It's there that we can cut through all of the barriers around socio-economics, attitudinal barriers, cultural barriers, because everybody does it. So, could we apply that across the board?
How can we get away from fighting for one art discipline across another one? Where we have all children is in school. That's the launch pad if you like for the making of art and experiencing and appreciating of arts in the broadest sense. If you give children that, and it was said at this conference, if you give them that, they want more. What they experience in school can influence what they go for out of school and so on. That's what the cultural offer is about, that's the trick I think. We're learning that in music - that it really does work.
How can that be opened up?
We know that this is pushing at an open door. Kids want it and families want it. Could we use musical theatre? Yes we could. But there are loads of other ways. Popular music making, for instance, connecting with what kids are doing out of school and saying in school that this isn't a different universe to what you're doing out of school. We need to tap into that and all the knowledge we have around Musical Futures, centring it on what kids say they want and allowing them that opportunity to say what they would like, rather than them just being recipients - empty pots to be filled up.
What can people do to push forward this agenda with the momentum that there is now?
I think we need, in a whole variety of ways, to be really listening to what children and their families are saying they want. We need to ask ourselves, how can we as organisations, as music services, who are businesses based on selling stuff to people (ie. schools) expand to be more responsive to what our other customers - children and families - are saying they want? How can we shift and shape and change so that, given the fact that we do benefit from government money - we are not entirely a business in that sense - how can we be more responsive? That's the key.