During the recent Women’s Football World Cup, I read an article about the players in the Matildas who grew up and trained in Queensland. Nearly half the national team – 10 out of the 23 players. As a proud Queenslander, this made me happy, but I wasn’t all that surprised.

In my own field of music, I encounter the incredible talents of young Queenslanders every day. Since taking on the role as Artistic Director of Queensland Youth Orchestras (QYO) in 2020, it has been my responsibility to support and train young Queensland musicians. When I travel around Australia, speaking with professional musicians and my colleagues in music education, as I learn more about the history of orchestral training in Australia and everything points to the same conclusion: Queensland is a musical talent factory.

We lead Australia in the training and education of young musicians, and we have been doing so for decades.

Within music circles this is well known. Earlier this year, during an awards presentation for Musica Viva’s Strike a Chord competition at the Queensland Conservatorium, Carl Vine (one of Australia’s pre-eminent composers and a former Artistic Director of Musica Viva) told the audience “Of course we all know that the best young musicians come from Queensland”. Carl Vine comes from Sydney and has been working with Australia’s best musicians for 40 years. It may be self-evident to him but I don’t think the wider community is aware of this feel-good Queensland story.

When I talk about Queensland’s success training young musicians, I get two very different responses. If I am talking to someone from Queensland, it will be something like “Really? That’s amazing, I didn’t know that”.  If they are from elsewhere in Australia, the response will be more like “Really? That doesn’t sound right.”

In case you want to share this story with friends from down south, here are some facts….

Since 1972 the Queensland Government has funded instrumental music tuition in state primary and secondary schools. This program celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, and now consists of over 400 full time instrumental music teachers employed by the Department of Education, who every year teach 58,000 students in 871 schools statewide.

There is no other state in Australia where this is the case. In fact, Queensland is one of only a handful of governments worldwide to recognise the importance of music education. The developmental benefits of learning a musical instrument are wide ranging and profound. Countless studies demonstrate that music education enables stronger cognitive, linguistic and emotional development in young people.

Simply put, kids who learn music do better, at pretty much everything: maths, sciences, languages, emotional regulation, communication and friendships. Government investment in youth music education pays an enormous social dividend throughout our whole community – in positive mental health outcomes, wellbeing and resilience.

In addition to these community-wide benefits, our State Government’s school music education program has given many professional musicians their first contact with a musical instrument. Before I studied conducting, I was a clarinettist, and my first clarinet lesson took place when I was in Grade 5 at Indooroopilly State School. Without that first introduction to an orchestral instrument there is no chance I would have developed a passion for music and an ambition to conduct orchestras, which led to a conducting career that has taken me to the Royal Opera House, the Paris Opera, the Vienna State Opera.

Another little-known fact – QYO, which was founded by the late John Curro in 1966, is one of the strongest youth orchestra programs in the world. I sent some recordings of recent performances by the Queensland Youth Symphony (QYS which is QYO’s flagship orchestra) to a friend of mine who has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for over 30 years. He told me that the musical standard of QYS was comparable to the German National Youth Orchestra.

Bear in mind that QYO’s intake is largely from South East Queensland, with some players from regional Queensland and interstate who move to Brisbane for tertiary studies. The German National Youth Orchestra is drawn from the whole of Germany, with a population of 80 million.

How do we do it?

QYO is like a Queensland Institute of Sport, but for music. The most talented kids from Queensland schools, state and private, hungry for the experience of playing great orchestral music, come to QYO. In 2023 over 800 young musicians auditioned for 560 positions in QYO orchestras and ensembles.

QYO is a giant nursery for the whole music making eco-system. QYO musicians go on to become professional musicians in our nation’s orchestras, amateur musicians in community orchestras and choirs, music teachers in our schools and in our suburbs. Others go on to work in the commercial music industry. Many more go into other professions but all QYO alumni remain music lovers for the rest of their lives.

Since 1989 the State Government has generously allowed QYO to rehearse and perform in The Old Museum in Bowen Hills. For over 30 years The Old Museum has been a hub of youth and community music making, with enormous numbers of community orchestras, bands and choirs (all of whom boasting large numbers of QYO alumni) using the building for rehearsals and performances. In addition to the nearly 600 youth members of QYO orchestras and ensembles, every week over 1000 community musicians use the Old Museum, experiencing the fulfilment of making music together – something they first discovered as young people.

In November I will be conducting at La Scala in Milan. Immediately after these performances in Italy I will join the QYS for a tour of Austria and Germany. On 1 December we will perform in Vienna’s world famous Musikverein Concert Hall, the home of the Vienna Philharmonic and arguably the home of classical music. QYS will be the first Australian symphony orchestra, amateur or professional, to have the honour of performing in this legendary venue.

I hope this QYS tour will show international audiences another aspect of life in Queensland. I love our beaches, the Outback, the Great Barrier Reef and our great outdoors. When Queenslanders win on sporting fields, or at World Championships I cheer louder than most. These are the things for which we are known worldwide, and they are essential to life in Queensland. But they are not all we have to offer.

Australians instinctively understand the value of kids playing sport together: the bonds and friendships formed; the discipline acquired; how a healthy body supports a healthy mind; the sense of community; the sheer joy of being a sports fan.

The benefits that flow from music education and youth music activities are just as profound.

I hope one day everyone in Queensland will know this story. I want all Queenslanders to consider arts education, training, and the nurturing of creativity an essential component of all educational curricula, and something to which every child deserves access.

The story of QYO, and music education in Queensland is a living demonstration of what can happen with the right kind of community support and government investment. Queensland is place where anyone can pick up a musical instrument and start a lifelong journey in music.

That is something to celebrate.

Upcoming QYO Concerts 

String Sensations, October 8, The Old Museum Concert Hall featuring three outstanding finalists in the 48th John Curro National Youth Concerto Competition perform their chosen concertos with QYS. 

QYO Finale, October 28 – All seven QYO orchestras and ensembles perform highlights from their 2023 repertoire. 

qyo.org.au

Simon Hewett is artistic director of the Queensland Youth Orchestra. This article is republished from InReview under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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