How job cuts at NZ School of Music will be felt beyond the capital

The musical eloquence of a huge mixed ensemble of professional, student and amateur instrumentalists and singers brought tears to my eyes. Protesting against proposed cuts to the New Zealand School of Music – Te Kōki
(NZSM) in Wellington, top musicians from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington and seasoned opera singers performed on July 13 alongside aspiring youngsters, talented students, past and present school staff and many from Wellington’s musical community, including jazz and rock musicians.

Their combined message about the NZSM’s essential role in their work, education and careers was heartfelt, affirming the school as a key player in Aotearoa’s musical ecosystem.

Performance students from the school are a vital part of professional orchestras, for instance, contributing regularly as casual players for concerts, operas and choral performances.

In June NZSM was told by Te Herenga Waka Victoria University to lose a third of its 32 staff, an evisceration that would irretrievably damage its future. The proposal was couched in brutal bums-on-seats language taking scant account of how the NZSM works, how courses are integrated and the necessity of one-to-one teaching for performers. It showed a staggering lack of appreciation for the high-performing, much-lauded school, doubtless one of the strongest in Aotearoa.

The financial crisis in our universities is not a new story. Post-pandemic enrolments are down, international students have yet to return, public funding has not kept pace with inflation and student fees are capped by a government that also rules on university debt ceilings. At Victoria, facing an annual operating deficit of $33 million, proposals to save funds by disestablishing courses and positions would mean the loss of 11% of 1100 academic positions. The government’s subsequent offer to Victoria of $6 million in additional annual funding, part of a thinly spread nationwide university package, barely scratches the surface of the debt.

Nic Smith became Victoria’s vice-chancellor in January. He acknowledges the cuts seem disproportionate across the university, the humanities being particularly affected, but says cross-subsidisation of expensive courses such as music, theatre and languages by other courses taught “at scale” happens in all universities. “If I cut 5% of positions across the institution, when about half contribute positively and half negatively, it wouldn’t change our deficit. Alternatively, if we worked on a strictly financial basis, that would mean deeper cuts not acknowledging the other important intangible ways programmes like music contribute.” He acknowledges Victoria is “steeped in the humanities, creative arts, research and scholarship” but, taking all factors into account, thinks the balance of cuts is “about right”.

He’s not happy about it, but seems to be sticking with a financial paradigm that barely acknowledges quality and value that can’t be measured in dollars. “[The change proposal] doesn’t do justice to the programmes on offer, the passion, talent and loyalty of the staff – but this isn’t some ideologically driven decision. We’ve had 15 years of funding at half the rate of inflation with fees set 20 years ago. Universities are only autonomous if they have resources – time, money, people – to make the right decisions. As our resource is ground down, so is our autonomy. That’s a tragedy for the country.”

Set up earlier this century as a joint venture of Massey and Victoria universities, the NZSM combined the strengths of the former Conservatorium of Music at Massey and Victoria’s School of Music. It exemplifies the pooling of resources towards a centre of excellence that is now being considered a solution to duplication and competition in the tertiary sector.

The NZSM offers a full study range across instruments and voice in classical performance. Musicians of the NZSO are artist teachers alongside its own specialists. Massey’s long-standing strength in jazz performance and Victoria’s successful traditions in composition and academic study flourish.

Innovative new music programmes crossing disciplinary boundaries and the only music-therapy programme in Aotearoa have been created. The NZSM has also expanded its strengths in research including musicology, opera studies, jazz, ethnomusicology, music and film, contemporary and period performance, music technology and sonic arts.

The breadth of the NZSM’s activities, its quality teaching and research and interaction between courses are a source of great pride to director Sally Jane Norman, a New Zealander who returned from Europe in 2017 to head the school. The NZSM under her leadership reflects international contemporary practices of boundary-crossing in performance and composition with a distinctly New Zealand flavour.

Tragically the NZSM cuts, intended to save a mere $1.5 million a year, also jeopardise five-year-old plans for a downtown National Music Centre, a partnership between the NZSM, the NZSO and Wellington City centred on the old Town Hall and publicised proudly by the university last year. Former mayor Dame Kerry Prendergast has successfully led fundraising for the project and donations of $32 million have been pledged.

The centre was scheduled to open in 2026 until Smith paused all university capital projects not yet under way. “It’s unreasonable to go ahead while we’re in debt and losing jobs,” he says. “We’ll get through this awful process and then consider them again.” If the NZSM is gutted, how will the university play its role in this visionary collaboration?

Norman and her team are preparing a counter-proposal to the university, suggesting some staff cuts but attempting to maintain the school’s strength, quality and diversity. In a best-case scenario, the centre may proceed if fewer cuts are accepted. In the worst case, such damaging cuts will be inflicted that key NZSM activities are abandoned with the risk that some of New Zealand’s best staff and students will take their talents elsewhere.

The National Music Centre may not happen. Key strands of Aotearoa’s well-woven musical fabric will be broken. We will all be the losers.

Elizabeth Kerr has been a classical columnist for the Listener, is a past lecturer in music history and analysis at Victoria University and is the past chairperson of SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.