Why doesn't your town have its own music school?

If Australia were in Europe, it would have 600 publicly supported music schools offering instruction to all comers. Including the external programs of the conservatoria, it actually has about 25 or 30. Could the community music school be the solution to our endless problem in making music education universally accessible?

… I do believe that every student should have the opportunity to study music, and for long enough and intensively enough to gain some real understanding of it.

If the public schools cannot be depended upon to offer this opportunity, perhaps the interested citizenry can explore some alternatives that are more under its control. The obvious possibility is the community music school.

The community music school in Australia: still a pioneering effort To the extent that it has a history in Australia, the community music school is usually an institution created on the initiative of a number of citizens, to offer specialised music instruction to anyone, of any age, who is interested. They teach a range of instruments and usually some music classes, and offer opportunities to perform in an orchestra, bands, choirs, jazz groups and other ensembles.

In Australia, most of the community music schools are found in NSW. Initially, a number were established in country centres under the umbrella of the Sydney Conservatorium, with some miniscule funding from the state government. In some cases, local government or other government authorities have also given assistance in finding accommodation. Typically, in a good sized town like Tamworth or Orange, the enrollment will be of the order of 700 or 800. The subsidy usually pays for a part of the administration, and to keep the schools going, students pay fees to cover the teacher costs and some of the overheads. There are very few such schools in other states. Government supported music instruction of this sort is sometimes available only through the extension programs of the conservatoria or university music departments.

For the complete article, go to

http://www.mca.org.au/m15208.htm

Establishing the Regional Conservatoriums of Music in NSW

Roland Bannister (“Notes on the Establishment of Regional Conservatoriums of Music”, Music Forum 8/3 February-March 2002) provided an interesting insight into Regional Conservatoriums and the vital role they play in bringing music education to a wide spectrum of country NSW.

His comments centred only on those Conservatoriums that are aligned with tertiary institutions. Today, however, there are fourteen regional conservatoriums, four of which are university-aligned and ten, community-based, of which Tamworth Regional Conservatorium is one.

When Tamworth opened its doors in 1984, it had managed to secure modest sunset funding from the Australia Council. In 1986, the conservatorium was included in the funding allocation enjoyed by other regional conservatoriums and received $8,000 from a total of $350,000. The university-aligned conservatoriums in the same year received not less than $80,000.

A special report, produced jointly by Mr Kenneth Tribe and the Department of Education, recommended that each regional conservatorium be given a base grant of $12,000, the remainder of the allocation being determined by hours taught. As well, the community-based conservatoriums each received an extra $6,000. Whilst the university-aligned institutions continued to benefit through having much of their administration costs paid by the university, the measures taken as a result of the Tribe report partially addressed the imbalance that existed between the two different institutions.

For the complete article, go to http://www.mca.org.au/samplecm040402.htm

The musician in residence
The composer in residence
Brass bands and concert bands
Rock bands
Orchestras
Classical music ensembles
Choirs
A cappella ensembles
Folk music groups
Indigenous music programs
Traditional ethnic music programs
Music theatre groups/companies
Opera companies
Music therapy
Local government programs
Training for community music leaders

etc