I’m a bit late in sharing the following two articles. However, I don’t want to neglect them as both are noteworthy for voicing remarkable positions in the field of professional music education, and deserve appreciation and further discussion even with some weeks of delay.
In April 2021, composer Fabien Lévy‘s passionate plea for diversity in repertoire and ways of approaching music appeared as a nmz longread. The piece should be considered more than a theoretical observation or a polemic reckoning with the fetish-like traits of classical music tradition, and be seen as a possible model for designing future curricula and study programmes.
In May 2021, an initiative of eighteen ASta student representations at German music universities issued an open letter that deals with a number of deficiencies in the current system of higher education in music, particularly in times of dealing with a pandemic. All of their points are worth considering, especially for being the first substantial claim of engaged student committees unwilling to bear with the status quo any longer.