Music colleges draw internationals as Dutch student share falls

Only around two in 10 students training as performing musicians in the Netherlands are Dutch, according to figures from education agency DUO obtained by public broadcaster NOS.

The Dutch share of students at conservatoires – the country’s higher music education colleges – has fallen from 52% to 22% over the past 20 years. Nine HBO colleges teach music at degree level and seven offer a master’s in performance. Of those master’s students, 78% come from abroad.

People in the sector blame 15 years of cuts to music teaching. “Far from all schools have structural music education, where children can get to know music,” said Jan van den Eijnden, senior adviser at cultural education body LKCA and a teacher at the Tilburg conservatoire. Music lessons outside school have become fragmented, with big differences in cost and availability, he said.

The arts council Raad voor Cultuur has calculated that the culture sector, which includes music education, has lost more than €500 million a year relative to other sectors since 2005.

Many music schools and arts centres have closed, and there is less room for one-to-one tuition. “That comes at the cost of developing talent,” Van den Eijnden said.

The drop is showing up in amateur music too. At the Wereld Muziek Concours in Kerkrade, a four-yearly wind music festival with orchestras from 28 countries, no Dutch orchestra entered the youth division this year.

Van den Eijnden and WMC artistic director Björn Bus both said the government should guarantee organised, affordable music tuition, pointing to Belgium, where lessons are far cheaper, and Luxembourg, where free tuition is written into law.

International student numbers in the Netherlands fell for the first time in two decades this academic year, a decline the government has sought as it works to limit recruitment.