On the beat

Learning difficulties?

The ABRSM, the UKs leading music examinations board, will be drafting a new model music curriculum for the Government. Why has its appointment raised question?

By Harry White

The ABRSM is the UK’s largest administrator of music examinations

ELMA AQUINO

On 11 January the UK’s Department for Education (DfE) announced proposals for a new ‘model curriculum’ for music, ‘developed by a group of teachers, education leaders and musicians [to] be published in summer 2019’. The curriculum was to provide schools ‘with a sequenced and structured template curriculum for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3’. In February, school standards minister Nick Gibb posted on Twitter that ‘ABRSM has won a competitive process to draft the new non-statutory Model Music Curriculum, ’ since when controversy has gradually gathered momentum. In March, responding to parliamentary questioning, the Government was compelled to acknowledge that only three organisations had been invited to bid for the contract to draft the model curriculum, and that two of them, the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) and Music Mark, declined the invitation, leaving ABRSM as the only ‘competitor’. It was further revealed, following freedom of information requests from the Times Educational Supplement in April, that the organisations were only given eight days’ notice between invitation and bid submission, and that as part of its tender application ABRSM claimed it had ‘already progressed some of the required work’. Despite the fact that the Government’s procurement rules permit selective tendering, industry experts and practitioners have been quick to question the legitimacy of the process.This has been further exacerbated by the fact that the government-appointed ‘expert panel’, which Nick Gibb tweeted would ‘steer’ ABRSM, includes ABRSM chief executive Michael Elliott, along with Linda Merrick, a member of the ABRSM governing body.

Speaking to The Strad, Bridget Whyte, chief executive of Music Mark, confirmed that the ‘principal’ reason the organisation declined the government’s offer to bid was because she herself was on this same expert panel, citing a potential conflict of interest. A spokesperson for the DfE insisted that ‘ABRSM were contracted to draft the model music curriculum following a competitive procurement process, involving a number of organisations with music expertise’. They went on to add: ‘The DfE assessed proposals received against the published conflict of interest tender criteria and was satisffied with ABRSM’s response.’

Jayne Price, head of division for initial teacher education at the University of Huddersfield, still has concerns. ‘I find it incredible that an organisation that has never engaged with music education in the classroom would be asked to undertake this work, ’ she says. ‘There are also issues in terms of commercial interest. ABRSM are an organisation that make money out of selling stu.to music educators and learners, so how long will it be before their recommendations are supported by a range of textbooks and other materials?’

In response, ABRSM have told The Strad: ‘We have a comprehensive compliance regime in place as part of our contract with the DfE to ensure that ABRSM does not profit from any unfair advantage, either as a result of our relationship with members of the Expert Panel or our access to any commercially advantageous information. Meanwhile, as a leading music education organisation ABRSM reserves the right, independent of its role in providing drafting services, to comment on the value of the Department’s model music curriculum, both in the planned consultation period and following its publication.’

The problem is not music teachers who dont know how to teach. Rather, there are too few music teachers in schools- Professor Tim Cain, Edge Hill University

The government’s own tendering document states that ‘essential subject knowledge’ must include musical notation and ‘an understanding of the works of great composers’. This has led to a number of teachers and academics publicly voicing concerns that schools choosing to use the model curriculum would limit teaching to music literacy and a narrow focus on the Western canon, restricting diversity. In response, ABRSM said it had ‘130 years of experience and understanding of what motivates and inspires achievement in music and has in recent years been actively engaging with the provision of music education in schools’.

Many believe that, although well-meaning, the government’s proposals ultimately fail to address the underlying reasons for the marginalisation of music in schools. ISM communications manager Francesca Treadaway confirmed to The Strad that the most ‘significant reason’ for its decision not to bid was ‘that the decline in music in our schools is not due to the national curriculum’. The government’s own tendering document states that its proposals are based on ‘the assumption that pupils will be taught music on a regular basis; weekly or fortnightly.’ Professor Tim Cain of Edge Hill University points to wider systematic failures that render this assumption flawed. ‘ The problem is not music teachers who don’t know how to teach. Rather, there are too few music teachers in schools, and they have too little time to teach properly. There are 1,000 fewer music teachers in secondary schools than there were in 2015. And, although the government continually reminds us music is a compulsory part of the National Curriculum for 5 to 14-year-olds, many schools pay little more than lip service to this requirement.’

‘There are bigger issues at play here, ’ says music-specialist primary school teacher Rebecca White. ‘Because of a timetable that treats music as a distraction from “core subjects” and the fact a failure to deliver music regularly in primary schools appears to have little detrimental impact on Ofsted grading, children in many schools barely experience music tuition at all. Surely this is a more pressing issue than the designing of a non-statutory music curriculum.’

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Royal Opera House loses appeal against viola player

The Royal Opera House has lost its appeal against a 2018 decision to award damages to viola player Chris Goldscheider (right), whose landmark case successfully argued that rehearsals for Wagner’s Die Walküre in 2012 had left his hearing irreparably damaged (see Analysis, June 2018).

The decision by the Court of Appeal has, however, limited some of the wider repercussions of the original High Court case. In particular, the judge in the original case had chosen to interpret Noise at Work regulations to mean that it should be compulsory for all orchestra musicians to wear hearing protection throughout any rehearsal during which they may be exposed to consistently loud sounds (set at an ‘exposure action value’ of 85 decibels). The ROH as well as the Association of British Orchestras, UK Theatre Association and the Society of London Theatre had jointly argued that this was impractical and imposed impossible restrictions on almost any live music situation. The Court of Appeal has overturned that part of the High Court’s decision, but this will not affect damages set for Goldscheider.

In the original case he had blamed his hearing issues on ‘acoustic shock’ caused by brass instruments positioned directly behind him in the orchestral pit, where the sound peaked at 137 decibels – around the level of a jet engine.

The viola player, who joined the ROH orchestra in 2002, claimed that since those rehearsals, he couldn’t even listen to music, let alone play it professionally. ‘I am grateful to the court for acknowledging that more should have been done to protect me and other musicians from the risk of permanent and life changing hearing problems, ’ he said. ‘We all want to find a way to participate and share in the experience of live music in a safe and accessible way.’

Chicago musicians end strike with new contract

The musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have returned to work following a strike lasting almost seven weeks, the longest in the ensemble’s 128-year history. The Chicago Federation of Musicians voted unanimously to approve the five-year deal, which was brokered with the help of Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who had called the players’ union and the orchestra’s management to his office on Friday to break the deadlock.

About 100 musicians had been on strike since 11 March, the main sticking points being pensions and wages.

The orchestra’s management had said that the existing pension plan, which guaranteed the players a set amount in retirement, had become too much of a financial burden. But the players said the proposed alternative would require the orchestra to put a set amount of money into individual retirement accounts, shifting risk to the musicians.

In the end the orchestra’s management promised that when current players transfer over to the new defined-contribution plan and agree to invest their retirement accounts prudently, the orchestra would guarantee that their benefits at retirement would be the same as what they’d have earned under the old pension plan. All new employees starting from 1 July 2020 will have the new defined-contributions plan. The contract also includes a cumulative 13.25 per cent increase in current salaries.

In a statement chair of the orchestra board Helen Zell said that the new agreement ‘ensures that the musicians receive the outstanding compensation they deserve’ while securing the orchestra’s ‘long-term financial sustainability through the retirement plan transition’.

1628 Nicolo Amati violin

NMM treasures to be exhibited in Cremona

This autumn, visitors to Cremona’s Museo del Violino will have a rare chance to see an array of instruments from the collection of the National Music Museum (NMM) in Vermillion, South Dakota, US. Taken mostly from the Witten-Rawlins collection, one of the most prestigious collections of instruments in America, the exhibits were all made in Cremona from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The exhibition will be titled ‘Reunion in Cremona’.

Among the instruments to be included in the display will be the 1700 ‘Rawlins’ guitar and 1680 ‘Cutler-Challen’ mandolin, both by Antonio Stradivari; a 1628 violin by Nicolò Amati; the Brothers Amati ‘King Henry IV’ violin of c.1595; a 1609 violin and 1613 violino piccolo, both by Girolamo Amati; a 1781 viola by Nicola Bergonzi; a Storioni half-size violin of 1793; and the ‘King Charles IV’ violin bow of c.1700, attributed to the Stradivari workshop and featured in The Strad ’s April 2014 issue.

The NMM is currently undergoing a multimilliondollar renovation and expansion programme, due for completion by 2021.

c.1595 King Henry IV Brothers Amati violin

PREMIERE of the MONTH

Individual differences

Bringing a unique, personal approach to music for a friend

COMPOSER Garth Knox

WORK Concertino

ARTIST Gunter Teuffel (viola) Tristan Cornut (cello)

DATE 28 June 2019

PLACE Dr Hochs’s Konservatorium, Frankfurt, Germanybit.ly/2UVe0vD

Garth Knox

Gunter Teuffel

NMM PHOTOS BYRON PILLOW. KNOX PHOTO FRÉDÉRIC BEHAR. TEUFFEL PHOTO KLAUS MELLENTHIN

When it came to commissioning a new work to celebrate its 25th birthday, the Cologne-based Walter Witte Viola Foundation turned to British composer and former Arditti Quartet violist Garth Knox. ‘His music is always singing and dancing, ’ says Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra principal violist Gunter Teuffel, who will give the premiere of Knox’s Concertino alongside French cellist Tristan Cornut. ‘As a player and as a person, Garth is youthful and full of energy in his movements, and you hear this in his music. He has a very clear, rhythmical way of thinking and writes harmonies that are somehow quick and full of life.’

As a composer, Knox is known for ‘Viola Spaces’, a series of short movements that each present diTherent extended techniques in a striking and engaging musical context. ‘They’re so colourful, ’ says Teuffel, ‘and give us great opportunities to show what the viola can do. Garth uses some of the same effects in the Concertino, too, but they’re incorporated so organically that it isn’t always obvious. The same colours are there, but he weaves them subtly into the fabric of the piece.’

As a distinguished violist himself, why did Knox elect for Teuffel to give the work its premiere? ‘He told me that he likes to know that he’s writing for someone specific, ’ explains Teuffel. ‘I’m very happy that that someone is me! Of course, Garth’s music for viola reflects the idiosyncrasies of his own playing, but he’s written this piece with me in mind, too.’ Knox and Teuffel are well acquainted with each other’s musicianship, something Teuffel suggests has been vital to the success of the project. ‘If I didn’t know how Garth approached the instrument, ’ he says, ‘I’m not sure how well I’d understand what he wanted from me. He holds the viola lower down on his body, giving him the freedom to bring more physicality to his playing.This is something I have to bring across in my own performance.’

COMPETITIONS

Barbican Quartet

Paul Vincent Laraia

Jonathan Swensen

QUARTET PHOTO MAIK SCHUCK. SWENSEN PHOTO MATT DINE

1 The Barbican Quartet has won the €10,000 first prize at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar, Germany. Founded in 2014 at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the quartet comprises violinists Amarins Wierdsma and Tim Crawford, violist Christoph Slenczka and cellist Yoanna Prodanova. Second prize went to the Marmen Quartet, also from the UK, and third prize to the Cosmos Quartet from Spain.

2 The £7,000 first prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in Port Erin, UK, was won by American Paul Vincent Laraia, 30, a former student of Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory. Yuchen Lu, 20, from China, came second, while 18-year-old French violist Paul Adrien Zientara came third.

3 Danish cellist Jonathan Swensen has won first prize at the UK’s Windsor International String Competition The 22-year-old, a student of Torleif Thedéen at the Norwegian Academy of Music, receives £5,000. Turkish cellist Jamal Aliyev, 25, was awarded second prize, and 24-year-old British violinist Mathilde Milwidsky came third.

4 The International Max Rostal Competition, held in Berlin, Germany, awarded prizes for violin and viola. German 24-year-old , Thomas Reifland, a student of Roland Glassl at the Munich University of Music, came first in the viola category and took home €7,000. Second and third prizes were awarded to French–Dutch 20-year-old Sào Soulez Larivière and South Korean Sangyoon Lee, 29, respectively. No first prize was given in the violin category, but second prize was awarded jointly to Kyumin Park, 22, from South Korea, 29-year-old Johanna Pichlmair from Austria and South Korean–American Daniel Cho, 26.

FORTHCOMING COMPETITIONS & AWARDS

Salieri-Zineto International Chamber Music Competition in Verona and Mantua, Italy, for groups with an average age of less than 35. First prize €10,000 Deadline 24 June 2019; competition 3-8 September Webwww.salieri-zinetticompetition.eu

Gianni Bergamo Chamber Music Competition in Lugano, Switzerland, for string ensembles with or without piano with an average age of less than 30. First prize €12,000 Deadline 30 June 2019; competition 11-13 September Webwww.gf.annibergamoaward.ch

Swedish International Duo Competition in Katrineholm, Sweden, for piano with violin, viola or cello. Open to musicians aged 16-30. First prize €4,000 Deadline 5 July 2019; competition 16-18 August Webwww.sweduocomp.org

APPOINTMENTS

• Alissa Margulis has been made professor of violin at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany.

• Yoonshin Song, concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, will take up the position of concertmaster of the Houston Symphony from the 2019-20 season.

• The Nashville Symphony Orchestra has promoted Kevin Bate to the role of principal cellist.

• Second violinist David Alberman has been appointed the new chairman of the London Symphony Orchestra.

For current vacancies, see our online jobs page at www.thestrad.com/jobs