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The Leeds visits GMEL Conference in Beijing

Competitions

Global Music Education League Conference takes place at the China Conservatory of Music

The Leeds Team was very honoured to be invited to present at the GMEL (Global Music Education League) Conference in Beijing this October. The event featured a series of delegate presentations and discussions, student masterclasses, and a passionate performance by the extremely impressive Chinese National Music School Orchestra. 

It was hosted by GMEL President Liguang Wang, also president of the China International Music Competition and staff from the China Conservatory of Music. In addition to about 50 Chinese delegates, the event was attended by nearly 50 principals, deans and departmental heads of piano and orchestral instruments from music conservatoires in the US (Eastman; Manhattan; Peabody; Oberlin), UK (Royal College of Music; Trinity), Austria (Bruckner University; Universität für Musik, Vienna), Russia (St.Petersburg) and Australia (Sydney).

We presented a session to share observations of trends that are changing the shape of our musicians' careers to help conservatoires get their musicians ready for winning a major competition and all that follows. 

 

Fiona Sinclair and Adam Gatehouse presenting the Leeds intl. Piano Competition

A key topic throughout the conference was repertoire, which gave us the chance to encourage a broader approach beyond core 18th and 19th century repertoire, and especially new works and works by diverse composers. This also led into a discussion about the gender gap in piano. The discussion revealed notable differences in pedagogical approaches of conservatoires in China and Russia, which favour a strong traditional approach founded on core repertoire, in contrast to the more fluid, bespoke approaches of the US. The use of technology was also widely discussed, as well as the relative balance of technical perfection versus musical originality, and shared some some interesting cross-cultural thinking.

leeds
Sally Egan, Adam Gatehouse, Linting Ruan and Fiona Sinclair touring the Chinese Wall

The geo-musical importance of this region is absolutely clear - quality early musical education is declining in large parts of the world, yet is a central part of children's learning in East Asia. We at The Leeds are seeing this in the dominance of Chinese applicants for our 2024 Edition. And with the ambition and scale of China's educational investment, it is sure that the great musicians of the future will increasingly come from this part of the world. We hope by taking part in these exchanges, we can help to better prepare our musicians for their musical future, no matter where in the world they come from. 

©WFIMC 2023/Fiona Sinclair