04/01/2021
When this initiative was built, we were criticised for lack of diversity amongst our team members. While we agree with this criticism, it simply couldn't be helped because our team is taken from the wider population of the department. The reason collegiate music-making is not diverse is that our arts education is not diverse. From the way our curriculum is structured, the genres and composers we choose to teach, to the infrastructure facilitating outreach opportunities; we are failing the next generation.
Courtney Pine once famously said, "For me, just playing jazz, in the early days, was an act of resistance." Can someone answer us this: Why does Pearson Edexcel believe that this ideal is not something we should be teaching our young musicians? Jazz was formed as a resistance to racial oppression, the simple act of picking up an instrument and playing something that no one told you to play was a metaphor for the bravery of their radical rebellion. This is a rebellion, which despite better efforts, still needs to be fought today! Systemic racism within the music industry cannot be tolerated - and if that is to be achieved we cannot teach our children a white-washed history of music that is not representative of the sacrifice our predecessors made for the freedom of music to be our right.
British jazz artist Courtney Pine axed amid Covid-related course changes, says Pearson Edexcel
