On diversity and hierarchy in music education
"One of the most important qualities for teachers is generosity. Inviting students to not just become better than them, but to also be different" states Susanne van Els in an interview in OnCurating.
Susanne van Els and Camilla Overgaard from the SMS-project speaks out on diversity and hierarchy in classical music education in a written interview with Brandon Farnsworth and Rosanna Lovell from Gender Relations in New Music (GRiNM). The Manifesto written by van Els and Overgaard was the starting point.
You can read the full interview in OnCurating.
All art is contemporary. Music, which is defined by time—real time, the here and now versus as well as united with eternity—is extremely contemporary; Beethoven’s 9th is different every time it has been performed over the past 200 years. All art is both a confrontation and unification of the individual with the collective. When listening to Bach’s St Matthew Passion, a piece almost 300 years old, the deepest individual pain and joy are perceived in an awareness of collective human connection. Therefore, all art is societal. (Susanne van Els in OnCurating, Issue 47)
I believe that artistic identity originates from why we do what we do, is expressed in how we are doing it and eventually manifested in what we do. The focus is often only on the what in the conservatoire setting. This led me to search for my what when I should have been searching for my why. If we shift the focus in music education from what to why, I believe that new narratives and images will emerge (Camilla Overgaard in OnCurating Issue 47)
