Q&A: Ralph Allwood

HC: What is it about the Rodolfus Foundation and your choral courses that makes you different?

RA: I'd say it's the cohesion and inclusivity of the courses, and the quality of the music that we choose. When I ran the music at Uppingham School, I saw all these people getting the opportunity to do these wonderful choral scholarships and thought, why can't we open it to others? So, I started these courses for two purposes: to give experienced singers the chance to improve on what they're doing and meet others, and to get people involved who wouldn't otherwise do it.

HC: How do the bursaries work?

RA: Since leaving Eton, I've branched out and now do Inner Voices, which is a choir of teenagers from about 12 state schools nearby, and I've started something called the Pimlico Music Foundation for children locally, and those all feed into Rodolfus. We also have engagement partners, like the Hackney Children's Choir: we give them several choral course places and we provide the bursaries, but they choose the children. As we all know, if you're in charge of a bunch of children, you know the ones who are keen enough to want to come who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it.

HC: Are the children daunted by the prestigious course locations?

RA: No, never. I've never known that. The one thing that daunts them is if they haven't been away from home before. Once we get children to a course, within an hour they stop feeling homesick and make new friends. I'm thinking of three from Pimlico who absolutely adored it and begged their parents to let them go again. Those children had been apprehensive because they were worried about not knowing anybody.

They didn't actually say ‘these people might be in a higher-socioeconomic group than me’ – they didn't say that, nor did they think that. What they thought was, here's a bunch of children that I don't know.

HC: Is there anything about choral singing that lends itself to inclusivity?

RA: The wonderful thing about choir singing, above any other kind of music making, is that those who are really good at it can feel just as fulfilled alongside others who are not nearly so good at it as they would with other people who are of equal standard. If you run things properly, they can enjoy the process as well as the finished result and the music. So, we have very good people learning alongside people who have never done it before in their lives.

I have only ever done auditions once and I decided not to after that because of the people who were left out, simply because they didn't have the experience of knowing the difference between a crotchet and B flat – so what?

HC: Can you tell me about your online sight-singing course?

RA: I believe that sight-reading is important in singing, simply because it opens the doors to good music. I want young people to be able to read so that they can do really good music, and so everyone who teaches music should be doing it from notation. We can learn it off by heart if we like, but notation should be there. I know some very good people disagree with me and I respect that and know where they're coming from.

HC: What is ‘good music’?

RA: Good music is what I think good music is, what you think good music is, what she thinks good music is and what he thinks good music is, and gradually over the years we get a consensus – that's the only possible way. I can't bear this thing about ‘classical’. What does classical mean?

HC: Any final thoughts about the future of music education more generally?

RA: The central thing is that we all agree that the current educational system is dreadful. It's based on averaging out children, and you average out children and then say that the system must do for everyone. There is no such thing as an average child.

We want a curriculum to suit every child, so no curriculum – a curriculum for each student. We want preparation for citizenship, and we need preparation for a job of their choice, and joy. Nobody mentions joy, so my catchphrase is ‘a job and a joy’.

The Rodolfus Foundation is running six Choral Courses this summer. To find out more and apply, visit www.therodolfusfoundation.org.uk/sing
A short film about the Junior Courses can be viewed below.