University News Last updated 26 February
Get to know who is driving RBC in this regular feature, Meet the RBC leadership team.
Head of Jazz Jeremy Price shares how he managed to get the Eastside Jazz Club into the architectural plans for the new Conservatoire building – which opened in 2017 – by taking the designers to Ronnie Scott’s to see the Mingus Big Band.
He would also like to see the building's foyer developed to boost audience footfall and put the Conservatoire on the map.
What are the core skills or areas of expertise that you bring to RBC?
I know what successful jazz musicians do to get to the top of their game, and I’ve now got a great deal of experience in translating that into a performance training that works and gets results. I sincerely hope that one of my key areas of expertise is showing clear leadership and focus while allowing staff and students enough flexibility to do things in their own way. This is a balance I strive to get right every day, as I’m leading an exceptionally creative and artistic bunch of people with so many maverick takes on what jazz and improvised music is, but nonetheless there has to be some sense of construct and purpose to the jazz mission.
What have been your highlights since you started at RBC?
Conducting the Jazz Orchestra for, Sketches of Spain, at the Town Hall. It was sold out and we had to delay the start of the concert because of the queue for tickets. And conducting Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music at Lincoln Cathedral where we received the warmest standing ovation I’ve ever experienced. In both cases, the students played out of their skins and there was a sense that everyone present was around something deeply meaningful to them.
Another highlight, of course, is managing to get the Eastside Jazz Club into the architectural plans for our amazing building. I ultimately had to take the designers to Ronnie Scott’s to see the Mingus Big Band to prompt the light bulb moment required for them to come up with their excellent club concept for us. We remain the only UK conservatoire to have this kind of venue, and it’s proved a real gift to RBC, BCU and the wider city.
What have been the most challenging issues that you’ve had to discuss and take a view on so far?
Music education in schools has been through an incredibly challenging time lately, and as we have been watching music hubs and education centres deal with cuts and re-structures, it’s been really hard to reach out and help while maintaining our own provision. There are some heroic teachers out there putting in unbelievable hours of service to young people for the sake of keeping music alive, and it’s been a struggle doing our part to help mitigate their decline. The new rhetoric from our current Government seems positive, but we await the reality and some action.
What are your ambitions for your department?
We have the most incredible new building, and I don’t feel we are anywhere near to fulfilling its potential. I think the foyer area is key and needs development as a destination venue in its own right with a bar, food, lighting, seating and exhibitions. Flowing from this would be a huge enhancement in audience footfall and a genuine 'on the map' cultural offer to the city and the UK.
Digbeth is going to be the new Shoreditch once HS2 is complete but that seems too long to wait for. Our five amazing state-of-the-art venues could be the cultural hub of everything. Our concert calendar is superb already, with a great mix of professional and student performances – we just need to give the visitor experience some serious consideration.
What do you do outside of the role when you are not working?
I have three children aged 19, 15 and 10, so across that age range the parents among us will know that that is quite an over-riding out of work occupation! I still love music sufficiently to consider it something I do when I’m not working; practising, performing and going to other people's concerts absorbs a lot of time.
I’ve never been good at exercise for exercise sake, so to keep active I like anything that gets me back to my agricultural roots. I’m happy scavenging for wood on the Malvern Hills where I live, for instance, and keeping my wood yard going with axe, sledgehammer and bow saw. I’m dreading Ed Miliband’s inevitable wood burner tax.