The High School Grand PrizeConquering Teenagers

Interviews 28.07.2021

For more than 20 years now, every year, hundreds of high school students throughout France have been discovering the works of several contemporary composers; each class meets them and votes for its favourite. The Grand Prix lycéen des compositeurs (GPLC) is now a must, and is also held in secondary schools.

Estelle Lowry, head of the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine, which runs the Grand Prix Lycéen, and Simon Bernard, head of the mediation department and head of audiences, explain.

Remind us what is at stake in the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs...
Estelle Lowry: Awakening the sensitivity and aesthetic free will of our dear high school students. Adolescence is a crucial period in the formation of musical tastes. It is more than ever the time to be open to contemporary music and to discover what is happening in the creative world. They need to be aware of what is happening in the world they live in. It is also an age when one develops a critical mind: one discovers what one likes, what one doesn't like, what one thought one didn't like... We are not dogmatic: the objectives are more qualitative than quantitative. Above all, it's about raising awareness!
Simon Bernard: We try to make them experience and understand what musical creation is today in all its diversity. The experience of the Grand Prix also allows them to become aware that the creators, the composers, belong to the same society as they do, that they exist, that they work, even if their music is not necessarily distributed by the labels or platforms that the students use. The meetings with the composers allow them to demystify the figure of the overwhelming creator! They talk to the students about their music, of course, but not only that: about their lives, their interests, their spleens, their joys...
Estelle Lowry: The students must become aware of the material and economic reality of a composer in 2021. They are immersed in mainstream, more commercial music, and are not really aware of the reality of the musician's job, far from the glitter.

Why not start raising awareness earlier?
S.B: This is exactly what we are working on! We have been approached by certain teachers, but also by our partners, including the Sacem and the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation. This year, we tested a first scheme for secondary schools. We had 28 volunteer teachers, who formed a working group to build a school version of the Grand Prix. Of course, the idea was not to copy the scheme as it is, if only because music teachers in secondary schools only have one hour of teaching time. And the commitment of the pupils is not the same. We started with the study of three works selected from the list of the Grand Prix Lycéen, with the students of the third year. Because of the pandemic year, only 19 schools were able to go through with the adventure for this pilot edition of the schoolchildren's prize. The composer Vincent David was awarded the prize for the middle and high school students! For future editions, we would like to offer a small commission, for solo instrument, for example, to the winner of the school prize. Registration for next year opened in mid-June!
E.L: Middle school students are more flexible, they behave differently from high school students. They are a very interesting audience for the discovery of contemporary music.

How do we prepare the ground with teachers, in high school and, soon, in college?
S.B: In the field, teachers are mostly music teachers, not all of them are familiar with contemporary aesthetics. We now offer an educational dossier that goes beyond the presentation of the composers and the selected works. The composers in the running write a note to explain the context, the conditions of writing their piece, and to give keys to listening: anecdotes, the history of the musical genre, the form, the instrument, but also more general information... We add videos! Nowadays, students who take music as an option 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 who participate in the GPLC are music teachers. But for the past few years, teachers from other disciplines have been interested and have asked to participate: for the past three years, an Italian teacher from a difficult high school in Marseille has joined the adventure. Then there was a plastic arts teacher, and another for literature... We are clearly looking to open up.

Will these mediation actions 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 the secondary school is one of the axes. Other awareness-raising actions are planned, but it is too early to talk about them. The aim of this house is to accompany project leaders and artists in awareness-raising projects, to help composers speak out and be heard.

Interview by Suzanne Gervais

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