CONSERVATOIRE MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT

Good mental health is crucial to a young musician’s development. Rita Fernandes hears from administrators, counsellors and teachers from leading music schools about what defines a successful conservatoire mental health support system

Royal College of Music students rehearsing at London’s Wigmore Hall

HIL ROWLEY

While undertaking research for this article I was hit with a caveat at every turn. ‘You can’t talk about mental health without talking about general health’; ‘It’s impossible to separate a young musician’s mental health from their musical performances’; ‘To understand a conservatoire’s mental health service, you must understand the educational structure in which it exists.’ What came from this endless zooming out was the realisation that when talking about mental health services in conservatoires, we are in fact talking about what responsibility institutions have in forming the best, and by extension healthiest, musicians possible.

From the bright-eyed fresher to the gigged-out fifth year, young musicians are at a vulnerable point in their lives when attending conservatoire. Establishing networks can be difficult and navigating new structures and cultures can trigger anxiety. These musicians can experience debilitating perfectionism and will have their mental resilience tested constantly. The latter is especially true since, owing to the rapidly changing music profession, students will most likely become freelance performers and be forced to handle uncertainty.

On top of that, the institutions at which these young people study are structured in a way that does not always make it easy to concentrate on self-care: friendships intersect with professional relationships, hierarchical structures can make it difficult to question authority, and heavy performance schedules can obscure the need for rest and recuperation. It is vital, therefore, that the institutions guiding these people through their developmental years are equipped with the resources to deal with the mental health struggles that may come with being not only a musician but also a human.

Although this article focuses mainly on mental health services within conservatoires, these are only one part of what makes an institution effective in supporting its students’ well-being. I therefore use phrases such as ‘mental health support’ when referring to institutional support (whether through teachers or curricula), whereas mental health ‘service(s)’ refers specifically to the institution’s counselling services.

According to administrators, counsellors and teachers from several leading music conservatoires, there is a general sense of optimism about the state of mental health support in their institutions. Services may not be perfect, but they are run and surrounded by people who genuinely care about offering effective help and are continually working to improve their services in a holistic way.