Conservatories have a reputation for producing great musicians. Were you to dare express any doubts about this, you would not have to wait long until a spout of alumni name-dropping commenced. Whether conservatories produce or merely attract talent is a debate that has gone on since their very inception, without much of a conclusion reached.
The word ‘conservatoire’ really just means music school. Of course, there's not much debate about that, so to avoid using some sort of long moniker, I will more or less be referring to the sorts of places that call themselves a conservatory or conservatoire.
One of their common quasi-stereotypical methods is the emphasis of perfection, both once a student is there and as a requirement to get in. The possible benefits being obvious, I shall address the downsides with a quote from Ludwig van Beethoven; coincidentally (or perhaps not) a man who did not attend a conservatoire: ‘To play a wrong note is nothing; to play without feeling is inexcusable.’ Alfred Cortot and his occasional colleague Pablo Casals – both musical gods of sorts – were relatively prone to wrong notes. Whether auditioners would overlook these shortcomings is impossible to say; whether there are institutions out there who would not is almost a given.
And of course, it does sound a little peculiar that a polished talent is a criterion for entering an institution where that selfsame talent is supposed to be polished. Doing so certainly has a negative effect on students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including minorities. This is because ready-formed technical perfection, requiring years of hard study, inevitably comes with a price tag. The average recommended study period is, by the way, 10 years before reaching a conservatoire – especially hard to stomach if you are already worrying about heating bills. This obsession over pre-formed technical mastery is not new but is currently worse.
In 2020 there was a Dutch study about Codarts, a conservatoire in Rotterdam. It more or less threw water on the notion that conservatoire environments cause musculoskeletal issues, but also had another less happy conclusion. The rate of 45.7 per cent of students suffering from ‘poor mental health’ is quite concerning. It doesn't explicitly correlate that to the conservatoire environment, but it is certainly implied. This conservatoire is not substantially different from the norm, leading to the possibility of such results elsewhere.
Although there is funding for disadvantaged students in place, it does not seem to be as well used as it could be. To drop, at least partially, the focus on pre-perfection would make sense – if an auditioner is worth their salt, they will be able to spot natural talent. In terms of improving mental health among students, simply focusing on encouragement over correction would be a step in the right direction.
Whether havens of higher education or bastions of pomposity, conservatoires are not going anywhere any time soon. The benefits of adaptations are self-evident.
