At the end of April I attended the Music and Drama Education Awards as a finalist for the Francesca Henley Inspiration Award. An absolute honour and a lovely evening with a good excuse to dress up fancy with some of the most important people in the VoxFresh world.
The awards brought together a wide range of backgrounds. School music and drama departments, larger national organisations with large scale initiatives, private peripatetic tutors, creators of printed resources and more. A room of truly inspirational people doing amazing things across the country in the arts sector.
As the evening progressed I found myself having a bit of an identity crisis – what role does VoxFresh play in the music and drama education industry? And where do we sit within the Children’s Activity sector? Can we successfully have a prominent position in both these areas?
This brought the question of what I consider ‘Education’ to be. Academic education involves the progression of pupils through key skills in subjects such as English, maths and science, with graded measures of success along their journey. This structure can be extended to the arts, in my case music. Singers and instrumentalists can work their way through graded exams in a variety of styles with a number of accredited exam boards being awarded with a level of success (Pass, Merit or Distinction) and at higher levels even accumulating UCAS points. This was the method I went through as a young musician myself and one that can definitely be said to prepare me with the skills I have needed to go into the profession.
But is this all that education entails? Again, as a young musician myself I was part of a number of ensembles both locally and nationally and I would argue these taught me SO much more. For me self-confdence has always been a challenge and being surrounded by other like-minded young people gave me the supportive environment to try, celebrate successes and analyse the trickier moments. My independent practise couldn’t do this. Then there’s the more social side of the groups. The music-specific element here is harder to find but I suggest is still there. In the arts industry you have to build relationships with other professionals ery quickly, making it easy for you to work together and building positive experiences to encourage similar opportunities in the future. My ensemble memberships certainly prepared me for that.
So back to VoxFresh. Yes, we teach our young singers musical skills. They learn how to create and stick to harmonies alongside vocal and musical techniques that can then be built on as they spend time with us. But we don’t base our education on a graded exam system. Why, because what we want to deliver is an exceptional education in confidence, relationships, commitment, time management and what it feels like to be truly happy. Can we fit in both the education and the childrens activity sector? I think so. The educational element of what we deliver is clear to see. Just because this isn’t the same formal type education that many award recipients that night were delivering doesn’t mean it isn’t there. And our singer-focussed fun session delivery lands us in the childrens activity sector very comfortably. We’re very lucky to be able to impact our singers to the extent we do and I feel privileged to work in an environment where that impact is so clear to see.