BACK‘Music needs to stay on the school curriculum’, says head of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
A leading British orchestra has expressed its concern over the dwindling presence of music in schools, saying ‘teenagers need reassurance that music matters’.
The older a child gets, the less interested they become in learning a musical instrument – that’s according to a major new report by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) – A New Era for Orchestral Music.
The research, which polled 850 children aged between 6 and 16, showed the number of children aged between 10 and 14 who said they were no longer interested in learning a musical instrument quadrupled to 16 per cent, compared to just 4 per cent of Under-10s.
Almost half of this age group also said their schools did not encourage an interest in music (41 per cent). This comes as a study by the University of Sussex shows the number of schools offering music at A Level has dropped by more than 15 per cent over the last two years.
Video game music has grown in popularity over the past few years and now regularly features in Classic FM’s annual countdown of the nation’s favourite classical music, the Classic FM Hall of Fame.
Marching for music
The musical world turned out in force to support the Put It To The People: People’s Vote March through London on March 23rd.
Musicians, musical administrators, union representatives, festival artistic directors, artist managers and music journalists helped swell the estimated 1m-plus throng that snaked its way towards Parliament Square.
Of all the music-related messages that coloured the day, the potential loss of freedom of movement around the EU for musicians carried most concern. Maddy Radcliff, the MU’s Campaigns and Social Media Official, was stationed in Park Lane as the crowds gathered. ‘It’s been shown that 98% of musicians feel Brexit will have a negative impact on the profession,’ she said, ‘especially when it comes to freedom of access to work in EU countries.’
Among a strong presence from members of the artist management community was Donagh Collins, chief executive of the Askonas Holt office – with his eight year-old daughter in tow. Collins was marching, he said, ‘out of a sense of frustration, trying to do something proactive that can actually make a difference.’
Collins found it ‘very cathartic to be alongside so many like-minded people.
Gustav Kuhn erneut von Plagiats-Vorwurf entlastet
Salzburg/Erl – Dirigent Gustav Kuhn ist vom Verdacht, er habe in seiner 1969 fertiggestellten Dissertation “Wert und Sinn im musikalischen Kunstwerk” plagiiert, erneut entlastet worden. Wie die Universität Salzburg am Dienstag bekannt gab, hat die Kommission zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis nach einer weiteren Überprüfung der Dissertation “keine Aberkennung des Doktor-Titels” empfohlen.
Zunächst hatte der Ötztaler Blogger Markus Wilhelm im Frühjahr 2018 Vorwürfe veröffentlicht, wonach Kuhn in seiner Doktorarbeit plagiiert habe. Die Universität Salzburg, bei der Kuhn seine Doktorarbeit eingereicht hatte, kam nach einer Überprüfung der Dissertation durch die zuständige Kommission zu dem Ergebnis, das Verfahren gegen den Dirigenten einzustellen. Im Februar 2019 wurden in der Wochenzeitung “profil” neue Plagiatsvorwürfe in Zusammenhang mit der Dissertation von Kuhn erhoben.
Conductor Gustav Kuhn is again relieved of the suspicion that he had plagiarised in his 1969 completed dissertation “value and meaning in the musical work of art”. As the University of Salzburg announced on Tuesday, the Commission has recommended “no revocation of the doctoral title” to ensure good scientific practice after further review of the dissertation.
First, the Ötztal blogger Markus Wilhelm had published allegations in the spring of 2018, according to which Kuhn had plagiarised in his doctoral thesis. After a review of the dissertation by the responsible commission, the University of Salzburg, where Kuhn had submitted his doctoral thesis, concluded to stop the proceedings against the conductor. In February 2019, plagiarism allegations in connection with the dissertation of Kuhn were raised in the weekly newspaper “profile”.