Page 108 - RPS Awards 2023 Coverage Book

have kept returning (22,000 of them so far this year). The hall’s free live streamed

concerts are another huge success.

“We’re doing everything we can,” Gilhooly says. “We’re doing the government’s job for

them.” But it’s not sustainable. Government support is lower, ticket sales are still

sluggish post-Covid and the cost of living crisis isn’t just hitting audience pockets, but
also legacies and bequests. And then there are the outreach targets on which any funding

is contingent. “The Arts Council has to acknowledge that we cannot deliver what they

are asking without serious systemic change.” It’s not enough for that change to happen at

a professional level; the real change needed, Gilhooly says, is in education.

“If we don’t fix music in classrooms then we can’t do anything else. All the wonderful

work we’re doing is just putting a sticking plaster on the problem. If we don’t get the

ten-year-olds, what’s going to change once they’re in their twenties? Putting in £500
million across arts education could make a huge difference.” A 2022 scheme from the

Department for Education has pledged £25 million for instruments in schools. In the

same year the Ministry of Defence spent £17 million on taxis.

Government guidelines — not even mandates — recommend one hour of classroom

music a week for every child. It’s a pathetically small offering. “Teaching children to

read is seen as unlocking this treasure. So why is music treated differently? I don’t

understand. It’s as though music is almost toxic, seen somehow as too posh.

“Everyone is innately musical. I see the difference music makes when we go into

schools: children light up. We see that confidence, that ability to express themselves
grow. Creating that kind of well-rounded citizen equipped to thrive and make the world

a better place — that’s right there for the taking.”

The 2023 RPS awards are held on Wednesday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

SE1; royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/awards/rps-awards