For over 20 years now, hundreds of high school students all over France have been discovering the works of several of today's composers; each class meets them and votes for its favorite. The Grand Prix lycéen des compositeurs (GPLC) is now a not-to-be-missed event for secondary schools.
Explanations with Estelle Lowry, head of the Maison de la Musique contemporaine, which runs the Grand Prix lycéen, and Simon Bernard, head of the mediation and public relations department.
Remind us what the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs is all about...
Estelle Lowry: To awaken the sensitivity and aesthetic free will of our dear high school students. Adolescence is a crucial period in the formation of musical tastes. Now more than ever is the time to open up to contemporary music and discover what's going on in the creative world. They need to be aware of what's going on in the world they live in. It's also an age when you develop a critical mind: you discover what you like, what you don't like, what you thought you didn't like... We're not dogmatic: our objectives are more qualitative than quantitative. Above all, it's about raising awareness!
Simon Bernard: We try to help them experience and understand today's musical creation in all its diversity. The Grand Prix experience also helps them realize that creators, composers, belong to the same society as they do, that they exist, that they work, even if their music isn't necessarily distributed by the labels or platforms that high-school students use. Meetings with composers allow them to demystify the figure of the overwhelming creator! They talk to students about their music, of course, but not only that: about their lives, their interests, their spleens, their joys...
Estelle Lowry: High school students need to become aware of the material and economic reality of being a composer in 2021. They are immersed in mainstream, more commercial music, and are not really aware of the reality of being a musician, far from the glitz.
Why not start raising awareness earlier?
S.B: That's exactly what we're working on! We've been approached by a number of teachers, but also by our partners, including Sacem and the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation. This year, we tested an initial scheme for secondary schools. We had 28 volunteer teachers, who formed a working group to build a middle-school version of the Grand Prix. Of course, we didn't want to copy the existing system, if only because middle school music teachers only have one hour of teaching time. And the commitment of the students is not the same. We started by studying three works selected from the Grand Prix lycéen list, with the ninth-graders. Because of the pandemic this year, only 19 schools were able to go all the way for this pilot edition of the middle school prize. As a result, composer Vincent David was awarded both the middle school and high school prizes! For future editions, we'd like to offer a small commission, for solo instrument, for example, to the winner of the middle-school prize. Registrations for next year opened in mid-June!
E.L: Middle-school students are more flexible, and their behavior is different from that of high-school students. They're a very interesting audience for discovering contemporary music.
How do we prepare the ground with teachers, both in high schools and, soon, in junior high schools?
S.B: On the ground, most teachers are music teachers, and not all of them are familiar with contemporary aesthetics. We now offer an educational dossier that goes beyond presenting the composers and works selected. Competing composers write a note to explain the context and writing conditions of their piece, and provide keys to listening: anecdotes, the history of the musical genre, the form, the instrument, but also more general information... We add videos! Today, students who take music courses in high school read little or nothing about music. We can't rely solely on sending them sheet music. We need to do a lot of mediation work.
E.L: Most of the teachers involved in the GPLC are music teachers. For the past three years, an Italian teacher from a difficult high school in Marseille has joined the adventure. Then there's an art teacher, and a literature teacher... We're clearly looking to open up.
Will these mediation initiatives be expanded with the integration of the Grand Prix into the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine (MMC)?
E.L : Certainly, the project to transpose the scheme to secondary schools is one of the main thrusts. Other awareness-raising initiatives are planned, but it's too early to talk about them. The aim of the MMC is to support project leaders and artists in their awareness-raising projects, and to help composers speak out and be heard.
Interview by Suzanne Gervais