BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Music education matters.
Whether you first picked up an instrument at school, you’re working full-time in an orchestra, or you’re just entering your industry training, it’s likely you share the sentiment.
The airing of music education program Don’t Stop the Music on ABC resonated so strongly with Australian audiences that they donated more than $60,000 and 4,000 instruments to the benefit of schoolchildren. The legacy of music education advocates and activists such as the late Richard Gill have inspired generations of musicians to teach, and share their knowledge of music with students young and old. Australia can no longer turn away from the knowledge that children who sustain music education throughout their school years will experience permanent benefits to their brain, advancing their language and problem-solving skills.
In this new series Music education matters, we team up with a leading Australian educational institution to find out how music education can help shape lives.
Speaking with talent from the Australian National Academy of Music, we introduce you to practising industry figures – emerging and established, performing and teaching – so we can discover the true stories behind the power of music education.
Music education matters, says Sean Burke, tuba
ANAM artist and emerging tuba player Sean Burke hails from Redlands, Queensland, and started learning trombone — until he broke his collarbone when he was 13, and couldn’t operate the slide! So his teachers guided him in the direction of valved low brass, which he’s played ever since.
Sean has performed with the Queensland Symphony, Wind, and Youth orchestras; and the Australian Youth Orchestra, too. He was a finalist in the 2016 4MBS/Sid Page Chamber Music Prize, and won the University of Queensland Wind and Brass Prize.
Somewhat unexpectedly, he’s also a conductor — the chief conductor and co-founder of the Australian Anime Orchestra, among other youth ensembles.
Tell us about your upbringing with music education. What do you feel to have been some of the defining moments during your music education as a child?
Growing up in a family of musicians was a real gift for me – there were always the sounds of various different musicians, live or recorded, wafting through my house at any given time. I was also very fortunate to have attended a lot of folk festivals from quite a young age. I had the opportunity to perform, either singing and playing guitar on a blackboard stage by myself, or joining in on stage with my parents’ bands.
In grade 3, I had a classmate whose father was a brass player in the navy band. One day, he came in and demonstrated all of the instruments in the brass family, and although I didn’t realise it then, that day changed my life completely. When he pulled out the trombone, I thought, ‘this has to be the silliest instrument I’ve ever seen in my life’. And from that day on, I knew I had to play it.
I then went on to start my trombone studies, in grade 5, in a fantastically supportive and inspiring school program. I then decided it would be a good idea to further annoy my family by acquiring larger and larger low brass instruments throughout my schooling and tertiary education.
How do you feel a music educator is responsible for a young person’s passion for music? In what ways can a teacher make or break a young student’s interest?
A music educator is the most important factor for fostering a young person’s passion for music. Not only are they responsible for guiding this passion for music, but also to help them develop an appreciation for life in general.
A great music educator should be able to teach students how to appreciate music of all kinds. I think there are plenty of examples of students very quickly losing interest in their music studies because a teacher wasn’t able to transfer their passion or love of sharing music to a young person in a meaningful way. A music educator who can transfer their passion or love of sharing music assists in not only the student’s immediate education and cognitive function, but will also teach them to approach each day with the curiosity of a toddler seeing the world for the first time – which is a more important skill to have in everyday life than any proficiency at music in general.
At what point did you realise you wanted to take what you’d learnt about music and form it into a career path?
It wasn’t that music was so much a career path for me, but it was a way of life that I couldn’t exclude from my day-to-day experiences. […] Deciding to really have a crack at the tuba occurred when I was in my third year of university, while I was studying the euphonium. After a couple of opportunities as a tuba player came my way, I was faced with the decision of either continuing on euphonium and not getting to do much work that I was interested in, or to make the move to a similar (but slightly bigger and more expensive) instrument that gave me the best of both worlds – playing in mediums that I really enjoyed, and having enough musically satisfying work to sustain myself financially.
Why did you decide to pursue higher music education, and how important is it for musicians to continue further study in order to achieve success in their careers beyond the ‘piece of paper’?
I don’t think it is necessarily 100 per cent important to be doing further study – lots of people have successful careers in music without tertiary education. It is, however, a fantastic opportunity to learn as much about the world you are entering as possible, as every day you are involved in different aspects of music; whether that is theory, aural skills, personal practice, composition, or technology and recording techniques. Tertiary education is also a time for students to begin their professional portfolio and reputation and open pathways to further work in the industry.
I think it is important to remember that the piece of paper they give you at the end of a degree is more a tangible product of the time you have spent studying, but it isn’t something that can replace the cultural and life experiences you gain. It certainly isn’t the be-all-and-end-all in terms of your stature as a musician. Some of the best musicians I know have had little to no formal music training, and can play the socks off a lot of people who graduated their music degree with first-class honours.
What have been some of your strongest needs as a musician?
For me, one of the biggest things that I always keep in my weekly practice schedule is fun. If I’m not having fun with what I’m playing, then it is very difficult to justify doing it at all.
Along with the support I’ve had from parents, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have great teachers who are patient and unafraid to give me the time of day when I need to hear it. Like a lot of people, I feel good if someone says something nice about me. But I always need and appreciate that honest and open assessment of my playing from peers and mentors.
Another important thing for me is to keep pushing myself to achieve higher and higher levels of execution by surrounding myself with colleagues who are passionate about what they are doing and are also terrific people.
Overall, the most important thing for me is making sure I’ve got the time to play music, rather than just ‘doing’ it. It is so easy to get stuck in the rut of going through excerpts and concerti and being pedantic about the quality of execution, but at the end of the day we play music, so it is imperative that we always come back to this.
How can teachers best support adult students?
While I’ve not taught any adult students on brass before, I’ve had some on other instruments and I think the fundamentals are all the same with any student. Teachers need to have a clear justification of why they want their student to do something.
With adults, it is important to remember and acknowledge that there are a number of external things at play at any given time, whether that is work stress, children, relationships, or other family obligations. Sometimes, they won’t have the time to put in the work, and other times they will, and that’s just the nature of the beast. When there are periods that an adult student has the time to work, it’s important to have instilled in them the same passion you want to gift children with, so that they will actually want to spend some of their time thinking about and practising the concepts spoken about in lessons.
I think the only other thing that needs to be said is as with any student, it is imperative that you respect them and appreciate that they have had their own host of life experiences.
And, if they’re adults and you’re in your 20s, they’ve probably been alive for as long as you, if not longer.
There’s been a lot of dialogue about the importance of music education in Australia. How do you think music education can benefit the community as a whole?
Music is such an amazing gift that we can share with other people, and that alone should make it relevant and beneficial for all humans, whether they’re from your own community or not. It brings people together through storytelling, and is a form of communication which transcends words and our own conscious thought. Music makes people feel things that they didn’t even know they needed to feel.
Take all music education out of society for a moment. Life suddenly starts to look a little grey, as our soundtracks consist solely of conversation and incidental sound effects. Music and music education are human. It is largely made by humans, for other humans — whether it’s just for the creator’s personal emotional output and reflection, or for a packed stadium eagerly waiting for their favourite rock band to take stage.
Looking at the academic and cognitive advantages that a quality music education offers should be secondary. It shouldn’t matter that music education helps promote a great work ethic; or that its goal-based nature means that at the end of a performance or an audition, or when a composition is completed, the musician can take this feeling of pride and accomplishment with themselves, and gain that little bit more self-esteem. These are all amazing benefits, but there’s so much that music gives to the soul before it even helps with any of these other aspects of life.
Music helps people express themselves in day-to-day life, and can inform people on how they feel and how that feeling will interact with the world. Music education also teaches us one of the most important lessons in life – working in harmony with other people to achieve a collective goal, regardless of how you or they feel.
What changes would you like to see in music education in Australia on an industry level?
Obviously, the first change I’d like to see is a cultural shift in understanding how important music and great music education is, so that more people can understand truly how beneficial it is on so many levels.
I’d also love to see more money going into funding music programs both in schools and universities. If the funding is there, we will get great teachers who have the support they need to effectively educate students. There are so many amazing music educators in Australia when you look at their specialty fields, but often they end up also teaching in areas outside their expertise due to funding cuts. This comes back to quality teaching in universities, and making sure aspiring teachers have all the necessary tools once they get into the workforce.
Finally, I’d like to see quality music education in Australia be a right for all people, and not a privilege for those who are able to afford it.
What impact have you made, or would you like to make, on the industry?
I’d like to have a positive impact on the music industry, even if it is only a very small impact thus far. […] If I can make a positive impact in even one person’s life, then that’s a win for me. I always aim to make sure that when people watch me perform, they will see the same enjoyment and excitement that I get from music, and be able to take that with them throughout their lives.
The one big goal I have for my impact on classical musicians is the skill of being able to take ourselves less seriously. There’s always this stigma attached to classical musicians as being ‘elite’ and, for want of a better phrase, ‘stuck up’. And I think a lot of that comes from this idea that we must be perfect in every way, to the point where we feel the need to be socially impenetrable. The reality is that we’re all human, and it’s better to have a little more fun and take the mickey out of yourself every now and then.
What advice would you give to musicians to help them get the most out of their educational experiences?
First and foremost, I would urge musicians to always champion music for music’s sake. If it isn’t musical, then there’s no point.
The other big one for me is to be rich in life experience, even if it means you become financially poor. Money will always be around the corner, but you won’t ever see the same concert twice, and you never know whether an international artist will come back to the city you live in any time soon.
Here are my five final pieces of advice:
- Be an information sponge, but make sure you hold true to what you believe in, and use information presented to you to further solidify or challenge your own beliefs.
- Be open. Sometimes, the best lessons about music are from other facets of life or other professions.
- Make time to reflect and allow yourself to be silent, even if there is noise all around you.
- This one is a big one: Keep going, but don’t rush things. Everything will happen exactly how it is meant to happen, when it is meant to happen.
- Take the leap of faith. Do something out of your comfort zone; go to performances and masterclasses that aren’t in the same style, genre or instrument as yours – you never know what you’ll learn about both yourself and music in general!
Check out the ANAM concert season to see musicians such as Sean Burke and music educators, live in action.
We’re teaming up with ANAM throughout 2019 to share these interviews in our series Music education matters.
Stay tuned as we prepare to bring you more of the personal stories behind music education in Australia.
READ NEXT: Music education matters, says Rachel Shaw, French Horn
Images supplied. Sean captured by Pia Johnson.
