Nathan writes op-ed for Nation.Cymru on Cardiff’s music future
In a statement released on 28 January, Cardiff University announced the launch of a formal consultation on proposed changes ‘designed to realise its ambitions and secure the University’s long-term future.’ These changes include a reduction of 400 academic staff and closure of programmes in music and several other subjects.
My heart breaks – for the current students who are experiencing the wonders of a music degree, for future students who may never have the chance to be part of this special place and its community, and for the friends and colleagues whose lives and energies have been dedicated to Cardiff’s School of Music for decades.
My heart breaks for their families, for the local community, for Wales’ artistic community, and for the state of Welsh music education. It breaks for the music teachers across Wales and beyond, where our Capital City’s university is diminishing the importance of music education. What do we tell our students when our own musical home appears to no longer value us?
The proposed closure of Cardiff University’s School of Music – established in 1883 at the founding of Cardiff University – is not just another calamitous administrative decision in the face of financial pressures; it represents a profound failure to recognise the importance of music as a discipline, a profession, and a cornerstone of our shared cultural heritage.
Losing the sound of the city
Although possibly a best-kept secret for many people of Wales, Cardiff University’s School of Music has been a truly world-class centre for music education and research for decades.
It has nurtured generations of composers, performers, scholars, and educators who have gone on to shape the cultural landscape of Wales and the wider world.
One of Wales’ most beloved composers, Grace Williams, won the Morfydd Owen Scholarship in 1923 to study at Cardiff. One of the world’s most performed living composers, Karl Jenkins of Palladio fame, graduated in the 1960s from Cardiff. Alun Hoddinott, as Professor and Head of Music in the 1970s and 1980s, catapulted Cardiff’s music scene onto the world stage with the Cardiff Festival of Music, attracting some of the world’s leading composers to the capital.
More recently, Sarah Lianne Lewis became the first female Composer Affiliate with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2020, David John Roche won a coveted prize at the world-renowned Tōru Takemitsu Composition Award in Japan, and three winners of Wales’ most prestigious prize for composers, the National Eisteddfod’s Tlws y Cyfansoddwr (Composer’s Medal), have been Cardiff graduates: Christopher Painter (2005, 2010), Gareth Olubunmi Hughes (2016), and myself, the current holder (2024).
This lineage of composers flocking to Cardiff is no surprise. Cardiff’s enviable cultural ecosystem plays a significant role in this – the festivals, the music venues, the choirs and music groups, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Welsh National Opera. It is a city that sings, a city that welcomes experimentation, a city built for world-class music-making – all now at risk.
What we can do?
A significant grassroots movement is underway to raise awareness and drive change. If you haven't already, please sign this petition and follow the campaign for updates on additional petitions, protests, charity events, and calls to action: www.change.org/p/save-cardiff-university-school-of-music.
WRITE TO THE UNIVERSITY
You are encouraged to write directly to the President & Vice-Chancellor, and/or other members of the University Executive Board. Contact details can be found here: www.cardiff.ac.uk/about/organisation/university-executive-board
