Music school's head hits back at class-bias claims

The principal of the Royal Academy of Music has hit back at allegations of class bias after figures showed just over half of its students come from state schools.

Government figures show the school of music has missed a Department for Education target to accept 88 per cent of its students from the state sector.

Professor Curtis Price claimed the root of the problem was the ending of free musical instrument lessons in the late Eighties and early Nineties.

"A generation has been missed. Students in state schools have not been given the opportunity to have teaching to the standard required to be a professional musician," he said.

"You can't start giving someone music lessons at 15 or 16. Musical talent emerges early and unless it is nurtured, it is wasted."

Another leading conservatoire, the Royal College of Music, managed only 45 per cent.

The figures compare badly with Wimbledon School of Art, Norwich School of Art and Design and Kent Institute of Art and Design, which all had between 98.7 per cent and 100 per cent of entrants from state schools.