Music teachers angered over release of prerecorded piano accompaniments for use in AMEB exams.

The Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) has been administering graded instrumental assessments for musicians across the country for almost a century and is regarded as one of the most potent and far-reaching organisations promoting the study of classical music in Australia. However a recent announcement that the organisation will now be offering the option of using a prerecorded accompaniment instead of a live pianist during its grade examinations has angered many in the music community.

According to AMEB’s General Manager Bernard Depasquale, the introduction of recordings has been made in response to numerous reports of a lack of accessibility to suitable pianists, either because of students living in remote areas of the country or because accompanists’ fees are prohibitively expensive. A major survey, run by the AMEB last year via an independent marketing company, allegedly showed that a lack of access to accompanists was viewed as the major barrier to undertaking an AMEB exam.

While the AMEB believes that “fundamentally it is better to play with a good accompanist,” Depasquale said that the backlash following the release of the approved prerecordings last week was based on some “misunderstandings” regarding the decision to allow what has been described as “karaoke-style” accompaniments. “It’s an issue of access and equity,” said Depasquale. “Where using an accompanist is not possible we believe it is our role to see how we can continue to offer our syllabuses and examinations to all students as part of the music education framework in Australia.”

The use of recordings will only be permitted up to grade 3 level, and the AMEB says the recordings will feature “some of Australia’s finest accompanists… produced by people with a very high level of musical experience.” In addition to using the recordings during exams it is also hoped that they will become a useful practice resource, but despite assurances from the AMEB many music teachers remain unconvinced.

One significant opponent to the move is respected conductor and music educationalist Richard Gill. While he recognises the issue of accessibility in rural areas, Gill insists that “the AMEB should do everything humanly possible to see that students have access to accompanists. It should start an accompanists stream and it should offer scholarships to support people who want to accompany.” Continuing Gill said, “accompanying is a specialised and highly complex art and is learned only through years of experience under the guidance of masters. To demean this art with recordings flies in the face of everything the AMEB is supposed to be doing.”

While an accompanist’s syllabus was historically offered by the AMEB, it was discontinued due to “lack of demand.” The AMEB have also revealed that the process of producing the recorded accompaniments “is a very expensive program… that will take a very long time to recoup the cost,” although the exact figure invested in the recorded accompaniments has not yet been released.