Richard Morris ... signing off

Richard Morris, 2009 © Chris Christodoulou / ABRSM

Listen to an extended interview with Richard Morris

If you think Richard Morris’s signature looks familiar, you’re not alone. He estimates that around 10 million exam certificates around the globe bear his name. ‘I think my name probably appears in more loos around the world than anyone else’s,’ he boasts.

Morris’s autograph started appearing on certificates in 1993 when he took over as Chief Executive of the Associated Board. He arrived with the quintessential Establishment CV: educated at Eton and Oxford, then ‘a lawyer in the 1960s, an investment banker in the 70s, and a publisher in the 80s.’

School friends included Nicholas Payne, who went on to run the Royal Opera and English National Opera, and Brian McMaster, who became Director of the Edinburgh Festival. They introduced Morris, who did not come from a musical family, to opera and between the ages of 17 and 25 he saw around 250 operas in London and across Europe – ‘I was a bit obsessed, I think.’

Payne and McMaster forged their careers in arts administration, but Morris wanted ‘to have hard business skills under the belt’ first. After practising as a solicitor at the Queen’s firm, Farrer & Co, he became an investment banker in the City, later joining publishers Hodder & Stoughton where he ended up as joint Managing Director.

‘When I arrived the Board was a very highly respected awarding body but it didn’t look any wider than its examining role. I had the vision – shared by colleagues – that ABRSM had the capacity to do a great deal more to benefit music teaching and learning.’

Morris set about diversifying the business, introducing professional development courses like the CTABRSM, expanding the publishing business and winning a government commission to produce the SoundJunction music education website.

‘Our mission is to motivate musical achievement in all possible ways. We can achieve this through exams, publications, professional development – anything that will help more people to make music and progress in their music studies.’

However the core of the business remains examinations. Over 600,000 candidates worldwide took ABRSM exams last year, generating £28 million in fees. Income from publications and courses took last year’s turnover to almost £36 million.

A panel of over 700 examiners – recruited, trained and moderated in the UK – assess candidates on more than 35 instruments. Morris believes these examiners work at an expert level:

‘The astonishing skills required to be a first-class examiner are at a comparable level to being a partner in a firm of solicitors or accountants, where the rate per hour tends to exceed the musicians’ rate per day.’

While ABRSM is an enormous global enterprise it is also a charity, so it gives away any surplus it makes to support music education in Britain. Last year it donated £1.35 million to each of its constituent Royal Schools: the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

‘The donations we make are pretty vital to the infrastructure of music education in this country,’ observes Morris, justifying the six-figure salaries earned by three of the Board’s senior staff. ‘It is essential that ABRSM is very well run if it’s to continue playing that role.’

Over the last decade an increasing proportion of ABRSM’s income has come from abroad and the Board now operates in more than 90 countries. ‘There was a degree of saturation in the UK,’ Morris explains. ‘After more than 120 years, virtually all music teachers in the UK are aware of ABRSM and the services that we offer. The opportunities overseas for expansion are greater but I don’t think one comes at the expense of the other.’

He denies that the Board’s increased activity abroad – particularly in the Far East – has been motivated by money, insisting instead that the Board wants to establish itself as the international benchmark of musical achievement. Nevertheless he admits that during the Board’s recent rebranding process, which produced a bright red new logo, ‘the fact that red is a very popular colour for the Chinese was not totally absent from our minds.’

Morris has made frequent visits to China throughout his tenure at the Board, meeting music educators and government officials. His efforts are now paying off: ABRSM is established in the southern province of Guangdong and began examining in Shanghai last year. He anticipates that they will begin work in Beijing later in 2010. What is the Board’s appeal there? ‘The Chinese have the highest respect for top quality, for certification, and for rigorous graded progression, which lies at the heart of our work.’

Progression is a word that crops up throughout our conversation. Morris believes that the government’s recent emphasis on ‘first-access experiences’ in music education – short-term introductory programmes – has been at the expense of progressive sustained tuition, citing Wider Opportunities as an example:

‘It raises the expectations of young people who are dumped after they’ve just got interested in music. Supposing you taught a child how to add up, but then you stopped before you got to multiplication and division – what would be the use of that?’

Morris becomes most animated when he talks about the status of classical music in the classroom. He has little time for those who insist all forms of music are to be valued equally:

‘There is no doubt that some of the greatest constructions of the Western classical canon are finer works than much popular music. I am in no way suggesting that other types of music have no value, but teachers need to make value judgements. There is a time and a place for lighter music; there is a time and a place for more serious music; but to pretend they’re all the same is not the answer.’

It is difficult to imagine Morris drifting into quiet retirement. He is a governor of the Yehudi Menuhin School, a trustee of Kent Music, and enjoys several hobbies including writing poetry. He also aims to begin executive mentoring for young leaders in the arts. But Morris is already considering the implications for music of the forthcoming general election and says he will continue to present the case for music.

‘Musicians and music educators should be bold in putting the government on trial. It has said every child should have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument; it has set up these first-access schemes; and it will be damned in my view if it does not follow through what it first set up’.

Morris already has the ear of the shadow Education Secretary, Michael Gove, who is ‘a great fan of ABRSM because we stand for standards and educational progression. Whether he’ll have the guts to allocate significantly additional money to music – which is what’s necessary – I simply don’t know, but I’ve certainly told him of the need.’

Morris’s successor, Guy Perricone, will have the job of dealing with the next government on behalf of ABRSM. Perricone was most recently Managing Director of London’s Institute for Contemporary Arts but like Morris is a former lawyer and investment banker.

It is clear that Morris will find it difficult to hand over the reins. ‘I’m aware of this precipice ahead but it will be the most massive change for me,’ he says. ‘ABRSM is a big family and losing this fills me with dismay. I think I’ll probably be carried out kicking and screaming ... still signing certificates, I dare say.’

Listen to Callum Thomson's extended interview with Richard Morris below: