The Australian pianist feels our traditional tertiary musical education system needs a change of emphasis.

Conservatoires are interesting beasts. From the outside, the concept of a school for music is both logical and necessary; a continuation of a fine tradition first institutionalised in Paris in the late-18th Century (though tracing its history through centuries of church training).

It is on the inside that issues begin to arise. Whilst I have no doubt that these institutions started with the most pure intentions, we find ourself at a paradoxical crossroads now. Put simply, schools aren’t teaching creativity anymore. They are almost exclusively concerned with re-creativity.

As a young student, you are told that if you practice enough, you will succeed. When I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music, London, I was one of 104 piano students throughout the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Our days were filled with the minimal amount of contact classes, with private practice (six hours plus) given a premium. It is quite a surreal thing to walk through the practice rooms of a high level music academy. You hear Liszt rhapsodies, Rachmaninov concerti, Chopin etudes, Beethoven sonatas, all in a macabre aural orgy of technical facility. We all practiced manically; to get that examination mark,...