Response to Erlend Hovland, ‘Future musicianship and present educational practices: eight questions on the future of the conservatoire as an institution’

Responses to eight questions posed by Erlend Hovland. 1) If higher music education is in crisis, how do we judge its seriousness and where do we seek the solution? 2) How conservative can the conservatoire be? 3) Should the conservatoire accept that the prospects of the few should dictate its educational practices and its criteria of success? 4) To what extent do the educational practices sustain a power structure where the student cannot claim ownership and agency? 5) Shall the conservatoire educate craft-persons or artists? 6) How can we enhance the aesthetic reflection both inside and outside our institutions? 7) Does the conservatoire need ‘critical friends’? 8) Are we educating too many musicians?