Music, where to study to make it a profession

Transforming passion into a profession

The students, some of whom have just graduated, do their best. Their dream is to be able to transform passion into a profession with the voice or an instrument. “Music for young people is like water for plants,” says Mussida. «It is a vital necessity, it is freedom and pleasure. Everyone receives it in his own way, every age has its forms but one cannot do without it, especially during growth, when the emotional world manifests itself“.

The flute of middle school as the only experience

Yet precisely in Italy, the country with the greatest musical heritage in the world, the approach to this art is for the few, for the most motivated or for those who grow up in a house with the speakers always on. For all the others, the only experience is the scholastic one with the recorder detested by adults and children, the manuals that remain untouched, if all goes well with some Christmas choir.

The only type of school where specialist teachers are provided is that of lower secondary schools, ie middle schools. In elementary school, music education is curricular, but very often the teachers do not know much and is delegated, for a fee, to outsiders. In high school, nothing.

Music education in the image society

Each new government promises changes it will not and eventually it all depends on the preparation of the teachers: «There are some very good ones, who do an extraordinary job» says Anna Scalfaro, professor of Philosophy of Music at the University of Bologna with a past as an educator. “Many, already tenured, collaborate with us and update themselves”.

But in general there is no doubt that musical education remains a subject little considered in a society that focuses on the image, and less on the sound. “How can romanticism be taught if you don’t know Beethoven and Schumann?” Or the Baroque without Handel? ” asks Gianpaolo Bovio, manager of theIC Arcadia of Milan. Yet it is so.

Studying music from nursery to high school

Among those who do not give up and fight for “equal dignity”, which is also recognition of the value of an artistic heritage, is Adriana Verchiani, widow of Piero Farulli, founder of Fiesole Music Schoolpromoter of The way of music. Manifesto-document for music education in Italywhich was presented to the ministers of education, university and culture and is supported by a online signature collection.

«The goal is making the active practice of music a curricular subject from kindergarten to high school. Today it is entrusted to the good will of the teachers while in middle school it often ends up discouraging any approach, because the teachers are not prepared ».

Children immersed in a “soup” of music

“Instead a small child should be immersed in a “musical soup” to help him grow; then it will be he or she who decides whether to dedicate himself “. Some news could come thanks to the Triennial Plan of the Arts launched at the end of 2021 by the Draghi government, «which encourages e finances schools wishing to develop artistic activities with 2 million euros»Explains Annalisa Spadolini, coordinator of the National Committee for the practical learning of music for all students, which promotes projects and coordinates with legislative initiatives. “We hope that the Plan is a first step to get to curricular insertion in high school”.

The important thing is to eliminate the recorder

In this shadowy landscape, there is also some light, and they are music schools: today those of the first grade are 2069, with 133 thousand pupils, while those of the second grade are 152, with 16 thousand pupils (data from the Ministry of Education 2022). Certainly a niche, but to be carefully preserved. Among the first there is the IC Arcadia, an oasis in the green on the outskirts of Milan, with many spaces available for art workshops, from painting to music. The manager Bovio argues, like Professor Scalfaro, that even the two hours per week in the “general” middle school, if used well, can give children a lot: “Listening, singing education, bodily expression … The important thing is to eliminate the flute “.

Music schools

In the musical address, which at the Arcadia occupies two sections – one for guitar and transverse flute, the other for violin and piano – it doubles, because theory and ensemble music are made in the morning and instrument provided on loan for those who do not has the means- in the afternoon. It is above all children who choose this path “who come to the Open Day, listen to the students’ performances and instantly fall in love with our proposal”.

And after the three years of middle school? «Someone chooses the musical high school, few continue to play with private teachers. But for everyone else in high school it’s the desert, and it’s a shame why neuroscience has shown that both listening and acting music have a positive influence on the brain“.

The double track, listening and music

Professor Scalfaro also insists on the need for the “double track” – listening and music: «You have to know and do. If you do not learn to listen, you cannot have access to our immense patrimony ».

Professional prospects

And it is precisely on listening education that the project focuses “Livemotiv” promoted by the De Sono association and the Agnelli Foundationjust left. «Our goal is train good listeners, and it is especially important today because we are bombarded by sounds and we need the right skills ”says the director of the association, Andrea Malvano. “We organize free concert-lessons at the request of schools, with young musicians coordinated by a popularizer.

Fall in love with an instrument

The children present their tools, we try to be interdisciplinary, we make references to cinema and the world of adolescents. Unfortunately, in schools there is little listening, at most Vivaldi’s Primavera is put on and the pupils are asked to make a drawing, but the music thus remains only a background. Instead it was born to be listened to with attention ». Malvano also dislikes the flute: «Before starting the lesson I throw it away, and the students appreciate». “Livemotiv” started from Turin, in September it plans to reach many other cities.

In high school the games are now complete: the competent listeners, those who will be the audience of concert halls and opera houses are few, and very few passionate boys who privately study an instrument or sing, with the dream of climbing on those antlers.

From school to profession

But what is the path for young people who want to make music a profession? For them, after high school, the doors of the courses open Afam (Higher Education in Art, Music and Dance) which issue diplomas equivalent to three-year and specialist degrees: 145 institutions among which there are 55 state conservatories, the Academies of Fine Arts and private schools recognized as the CPM of Milan.

The numbers are growing: 29,448 students enrolled in instrument courses in 2020/21, compared to 24 thousand in 2016/17, with peaks of 4000 for piano, 3000 for voice and 1800 for violin; 8588 graduates in the same year (source Ministry of University).

Mahmood, Baglioni or Jovanotti

Little is known instead ofentry into the world of work: the only official data are those of Almalaurea in 2016, which show an average percentage of employees of 53 per cent (72 among second level graduates), of which 30 per cent teach.

More recent numbers are not there, and it is a pity, because understanding the possibilities could help young people to orient themselves in a sector where there is no longer only the perspective of the professorship or the concert hall: new spaces are now opening up also in the related industries.

New professions for new graduates

At Cpm, for example (next Open Day on 10 September), the courses of Electronic Music Producer and Pro Audio Engineer are strong: «Many students from our 17 Afam courses they start working before they graduateSays Mussida. “We have two who help Mahmood in the production, two are with Claudio Baglioni, others have followed the tours of Jovanotti and Ligabue, or are in the X Factor studios”.

There is no music without an audience

But we must always remember that music is meant to be listened to, and Mussida repeated it at the end of the concert at the Castello Sforzesco, at the time of the greetings: “There is no music without an audience, and the lack of musical education in the new generations is a missed opportunity. The education of children should start from the world of sounds, together with that of images ». The last appeal comes from the head teacher Gianpaolo Bovio: «We give our all from the trenches. Culture cannot be made deaf ».

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