Two weeks after the announcement by the Schulich School of Music of the permanent closure of the McGill Conservatory of Music, Schulich Community Program, teachers, parents and students are mobilizing to try to get the School to reconsider its position.
On June 20, McGill University announced the closure of its conservatory, a school of music that has been active for 118 years. As reported The duty in its edition of June 22, the establishment highlighted the abrupt drop in the number of registrations since the start of the pandemic, the departure of teachers and missing premises.
Since then, a mobilization has started and a petition called “Save/Sauvons McGill Conservatory of Music” has been launched by the executive committee of the Union of Lecturers and Instructors of McGill (SCCIM). SCCIM seeks to “demonstrate to McGill how important the Conservatory is for everyone and for the community” and makes only one request: “The Conservatory must remain open and active and its closure must be canceled permanently. »
Union representative and teacher, Jeanette Wong regrets an “administrative decision, devoid of leadership and long-term vision”. Genevieve Snider, piano teacher, specifies that the petition also seeks to rally recognized names, friends of the Conservatory, philanthropists: “We want the management to think twice and really analyze things. »
Reasons questioned
Piano teacher for 40 years at the Conservatory, Josiane Lefebvre disputes the reasons put forward by the University. On the question of the missing premises, she underlined the support of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Music. “Faculty members were never warned of a possible risk of closing the Conservatoire. Now that they know it’s a question of survival, they are opening their premises to us. »
Mme Lefebvre doubts the financial deficit. As for the number of teachers and students, the teaching body would be, according to our interlocutors, 60, for a maximum of 80 at full capacity, with 300 students, up to 550 in a flourishing period. “We have not gone below the number of 300, and the students want to come back to the presence. I don’t know where the figures come from, ”laments Mme Lefebvre.
Contacted by The dutyMedia Relations Officer for McGill University, Claire Loewen, reiterated on Tuesday that “prior to the pandemic, the Conservatory had a faculty of nearly 100 members each year and welcomed more than 550 students,” while “next year, in the best case scenario, we would welcome 100 students at most”.
In the musical ecosystem, the McGill Conservatory, relatively unknown in Montreal, is an important link that teaches music from beginner to college level in both languages. This training is all the more important as compulsory musical education has disappeared from school curricula. The Conservatory also organizes examinations recognized by the ministry for 500 to 600 students per year.
After the Conservatory, the most motivated students stay in the music stream at CEGEP, then at university, which trains the elite. For the rest, “that makes future spectators of the OSM and cultural institutions,” says Josiane Lefebvre. “As for the benefits of musical education on academic learning and professional and social development, they no longer need to be demonstrated”, adds Genevieve Snider.
Jeanette Wong insists on the social dimension: “Certainly, there is more money to be made by training the elite, but we serve the community. We believe that things are not mutually exclusive: it is not necessary to throw the community program out of the way,” underlines the one who regrets the “lack of listening” on the part of the McGill administration.
In the short term, Genevieve Snider emphasizes having asked Sean Ferguson, new dean of the Schulich School of Music, for an external audit to take stock of the situation and consider solutions. “You need a collaborative approach. They say it is with regret that they make this decision. So, if there is a problem, let it be analyzed by outsiders. »
Questioned about its desire to maintain the Conservatory, McGill University confined itself to its declarations of June: the decision is the result of a “rigorous analysis” and “the Conservatory is no longer viable”.