Individual impact: May 2023 Editorial

Last month's MT carried an article on the gender disparity in music technology – at A Level but also within the music tech industry at large. Called ‘Bridging the gap’, it encouraged teachers to promote female media composers and producers. Since then, the Women's History Month Listening Calendar (produced by I Can Compose) has crossed my desk and I've heard works by lesser-known and younger female composers. With MT's focus this month being composition and tech, I'm pleased to include an article on Hinako Omori and her unique electronic sound world.

Composition in schools, meanwhile, is the subject of this month's article by James Manwaring, questioning how we think of creativity within the curriculum. It's also the subject on Kate Rounding's article on KS3 project ideas, and the tech column and review this month contain tips on effects and virtual instruments, in composition.

You may have noticed that there's been a change at LCME since last month's feature entitled, er, ‘Ringing the changes’. Alas, Jonathan Drennan, chief examiner, has moved on from the exam board and the clapper has passed to Hugh Sutton, a long-serving LCME examiner. We congratulate Mr Sutton on his appointment as interim chief and look forward to the next phase. Meanwhile, for the current issue, the principal of GSMD, Jonathan Vaughan, shares his own vision for music education and new collaborations.

In other news, there was a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Music Education on 21 March (chaired by Wera Hobhouse MP), which I had the privilege of attending. Guest speakers were Anna Lapwood (renowned organist and director of music), Deborah Annetts (ISM), Michele Gregson (NSEAD), Elena Wilson (Edge Foundation) and Dr Jodie Underhill (ISM). Attendees included leaders from music education hubs, from Kent to Yorkshire, and parliamentarians who are known supporters of the arts. Discussions covered the forthcoming reorganisation of hubs (from around 120 to 40 over the coming months), the declining numbers of students and teachers in arts subjects, the impact of the EBacc and Progress 8 on this, and how music education is seen as a privilege or lacking ‘value’ in some quarters. One surprising statistic, courtesy of ISM research based on Arts Council data, was how music attracts government spend of around $9.30 per pupil per year, while for sport this figure is around $73.60. No one was suggesting sport isn't important, but the difference was stark.

Some speakers described an ‘existential crisis’ in music education, and the meeting agreed to petition the government on several fronts. You can contribute to a call for evidence from a House of Lords committee by following this link, but you'll need to act quickly – the deadline is 30 April.

Finally, on a happier note, this issue includes Nelson Primary School and insights into its recent Music & Drama Education Award; we debate the ‘spiritual’ or ‘other’ quality of music, which probably got us all hooked on the subject; and we celebrate the reprieve of the BBC Singers, in letters and news. There's also a tale of one person's success in presenting at the National Education Union conference. All stories of individual as much as collective success.

- Phil Croydon, editor