Q&A: John Davie

What was your reaction to the award?

Well, I said to my son that I had received a hoax email and he had to tell me that it wasn't!

When did it sink in?

Well, I'm normally quite a good speaker but I was flabbergasted really. The person who nominated me said some lovely things that brought tears to my eyes. They said that they did it because I care about the kids and because I strive for excellence. Well, we just do this work because it's what we love, don't we? We don't do it because we expect to see anything at the end of the tunnel. If you're in teaching there's not many great rewards, so this was a lovely surprise.

Before this, have you ever taken stock of your accomplishments?

Well, I was asked to put something on the Chiltern Music Academy (CMA) website and someone else looked at it and said that there was quite a lot on there. I mean, I've had a great varied life so I felt I had to put something down. It's all by accident really.

What do you mean?

Well, I was born in 1939 and ended up being sent to the north-east of England with my grandmother when the family home in Barking was levelled by the bombing. As a result, I grew up as a northerner. There was an insurance man up there who used to come to the door. He played trombone and euphonium in a couple of bands and got me into playing – I had a toss-up between the cornet and the clarinet and the latter won out.

Later, as national service was still in effect, I went into the RAF and while I was never called up, I had to join the band as they knew I was a musician. The bandmaster said to us that we should join the music services and while I initially said no, I eventually joined the RAF School of Music. It really started from there. When I was in the central band of the RAF, I had to do teaching as part of the job. I was given a couple of schools and I ended up teaching in High Wycombe at what is now Bucks New University teaching clarinet in the music department. One of the other teachers there was asked to set up the High Wycome music centre and when he went to do that, I went with him.

Have you noticed any trends in music education over your career?

When I started, lessons were free in schools and music centres and, as I said in my acceptance speech, we need to return to that. What worries me is that where there's not much money, the talent that is in every school will not be encouraged. You need the right people in every school. I'm a fan of the Advance Skills Teachers scheme – paying the best people well to keep them in the classroom is what's needed at the coalface. Instead, we have schools getting rid of its instruments because they're not being used. It's so sad. CMA is self-funded, which is possible, but it needs the right people, the right support and the ability to fight your corner.

Has young people's engagement with music stayed constant?

I think so. My two grandsons are musicians. One did a BMus in rock guitar and the other is on the Jazz course at Trinity – so they've been raised in the same environment and came out very different. Their father went to Guildhall and was a music teacher, and he supports all forms of music, which is important.

At CMA, we have a great atmosphere, and we've got some good people. Everyone gets on and they produce great performances. I love my group – we've got about 50 kids aged between 9 and 13. Every Friday night we're having to do crowd control as they just keep coming back! Even the people who leave us tend to stay in music, just somewhere else. You can't win them all, but we've not really lost them either. Ultimately, we want them to be good at what they do and to enjoy doing it. We had one boy whose dad came to thank us as he felt we'd manage to connect with him in a way that school had not. That's what sticks with me.