MAKING A MUSICAL NATION | John Wallace CBE, School President

MAKING A MUSICAL NATION

John Wallace CBE, School President

Professor John Wallace CBE has been President of St Mary’s Music School since 2001. From 2002 until 2014 he was Principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and since then, among many other positions, he has been Chair of the Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG) – the key influencers in the Scottish Government’s recent decision to abolish instrumental tuition fees for schoolchildren in Scotland. John was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in the 2021 Honours’ List.

“Becoming President of St Mary’s Music School is one of the greatest privileges of my life. I was asked, following Yehudi Menuhin’s death, just as I became Principal of the Conservatoire, so it felt as if I was part of an effort to join west and east together in a common musical purpose.

Over the years, I’ve come in and played with and talked to the pupils, and I’ve attended events, but what I really hope to provide is inspiration. I think it helps students to see that if it’s possible for someone like me, from humble beginnings in Scotland, to make an international career in music, then it’s possible for them too. I started off playing in a brass band when I was seven and ended up having concertos written for me by Peter Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan and Malcolm Arnold.

“Music is just a route to being human – one of the many things that makes us tick. But I feel we need to do a Chris Packham. He wants to re-wild Britain and I want to re-music Scotland.”

When MEPG asked me to become their Chair, I saw a massive job ahead because the education system in Scotland, like any other country, is very complex and music education particularly so. But Scotland has a very special place in the musical firmament, emerging – as many countries have – from a great tradition of folk music and we’ve been super collegiate in our approach. We’ve forged partnerships with schools and third sector groups, because I don’t think schools can do this on their own, and now we have all these important people like NYCOS, NYOS, Sistema Scotland, TRACS, Drake and the Benedetti Foundation involved. We’re developing a strategy to change perceptions of music and highlight its intrinsic importance to young people, and to their health and wellbeing, mentally as well as physically. However, to truly embed equality in music education, removing tuition fees is essential… but that’s a big, brave pill to swallow. We developed a fantastic relationship with John Swinney and Fiona Hyslop and, during lockdown, we pitched our Music for Scotland manifesto to all the political parties and had it adopted. That drove through three key changes: the abolition of fees for instrumental teaching; the opportunity for instrumental teachers to be GTCS registered; and the establishment of the ‘We Make Music’ platform for schools across Scotland. In removing barriers to accessing music education, we’re going to have to be inventive to meet increased demand for participation – but what a great challenge! When fees were removed in Dundee for example, participation rose to 20% and it’s already more than that in Shetland and the Western Isles. So, we will need more choirs, more orchestras and more music making in larger groups, which is why working with third sector partners will be a critical way to expand capacity. In addition to St Mary’s Music School, Scotland has four centres of excellence for music and I’d like to see them all reaching out to primary schools, showing very young children that music is fun, and that playing can become part of who they are.

“Music is one of the profound healing agents of society. It inspires your thoughts, gets your endorphins racing, sends shivers down your spine and helps you to be more human. Every creative person I know has undertaken projects during lockdown that they didn’t have time to do before, so there’s a tsunami of creativity ahead – we’re going into the roaring twenties and it’s going to be chaotically vibrant!”

Looking to the future of music in Scotland, I look at Calton Hill and see this fantastic opportunity for a national centre to irrigate the whole country, drawing it in through great partnerships. It could be world leading and it’s now within our grasp. It’s taken 20 years to get here and we’ll need to work hard for the next 20 years to get established. By 2040, I hope we’ll have a bigger music industry than London. That’s the dream.”