Conservatoire student and instrumental professor: the student perspective on a complex relationship

Abstract

This article examines the special relationship between students and their instrumental teachers in UK conservatoires. Conservatoires in the UK provide a higher education for aspiring performers and composers and the students' choice of conservatoire will often be guided by their desire to study with a particular ‘professor’ who will teach them their major or ‘principal study’ instrument. Many such professors are visiting part-time staff whose teaching commitment represents only a small proportion of their wider professional lives. Here, the relationship between student and professor is revealed through the perceptions of piano students at a UK conservatoire and a picture emerges of partnerships which are remarkably productive, but vary widely in the degree and range of musical and personal support that students ideally hope to receive from them.