Calls to end one-to-one tuition after misconduct claim at Royal College of Music

All one-to-one music teaching of young students should be dropped by classical academies and conservatoires, according to the virtuoso cellist and campaigner Julian Lloyd Webber. He made his comments in reaction to news that a senior professor at the internationally renowned Royal College of Music in London has been suspended after allegations of misconduct.

“There is no need for one-to-one tuition to continue,” said Lloyd Webber, who studied at the college in Kensington as a boy, following in the footsteps of his older brother Andrew and their father, the composer William Lloyd Webber, who was a professor there for many years. “I personally think groups of three are the best size now for any lesson. It would mean there was much more openness and accountability.”

The suspension of Mark Messenger, 59, who has been head of strings at the RCM for 20 years, was confirmed on Friday after what it described as “complaints received”. Students in his department, which draws applications from around the world for its 220 places, were informed in an email that their professor’s period of leave would take effect immediately “for personal reasons”. Messenger, a professional violinist and conductor as well as a teacher, oversees the selection of students and then steers their education, recommending the most talented players for places in some of Britain’s top orchestras.

The college, which opened in 1883, has educated many great British composers, including Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten, while King Charles has been its president for 30 years.

Speaking anonymously to the Observer last week, a recent former student said that procedures for reporting and preventing alleged abuse and misconduct at the college had been criticised for some time. String players, she said, were often particularly worried about upsetting the teaching staff or being accused of causing trouble.

News of Messenger’s suspension was first reported on the well-known classical music blog Slipped Disc.

Lloyd Webber is a teacher himself, since he stepped back from his successful concert career. He was previously principal of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he still occasionally teaches, and he has also promoted wider access to classical music training through the In Harmony charity. He is distressed, he said, by the prospect of damage to the reputation of the RCM, whether justified or not, and added that he believes the conventional idea that one-to-one teaching is the gold standard is neither true nor helpful.

“Often students can learn from watching each other gradually improve, as well as from their teachers. It is certainly not a disadvantage for anyone and I urge institutions to impose this rule of having at least three students together for a lesson,” he said.

A spokesperson for the RCM told the Observer that the “welfare and development of our students is central to the Royal College of Music”, adding that “following complaints received by the college an investigation has been launched into issues that have been raised and a member of staff has been suspended”.

Messenger is believed to deny the claims made against him but has made no public comment.