The Music Exchange

I’m writing this article in the foyer of the Royal College of Music. I’m here because I help out a little bit at the various London music college Christian Unions. There’s a new influx of freshers filing past me from every nation, and the confident, striding swagger has been genetically inherited from the older years.

I’m always taken aback by the way these young people have such huge expectations, and have such an unrealistic view of their own significance. And yet, at the same time, one of their biggest problems is low self-esteem. All these confident faces are the faces of performers. The performances are very professional, and they are successful in masking the truth that they are petrified of failure. What their performances do reveal, however, is the fact that they have exchanged the worship of their Creator with the worship of created things — music, fame, themselves. This is mostly because of the prevailing ‘success’ culture within the music world — if you’re not the best, then you’re a failure. No one is being groomed to play second fiddle.

It follows then, that if you’re going to be the best, music must consume your life, and everyone else’s life and reputation must be used to achieve your goal. Music must become your god. Tim, a pianist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, was told just that by his teacher — that the piano must be his god…and he was already practising six or seven hours a day!

It’s obvious where this ends up — either over-inflated pride if you make it to the top, or completely deflated depression, leading to even lower self-esteem.

Building confidence

And yet, in each college there is a small cluster of Christians who are markedly different. They meet weekly in their own colleges and all together every month in a big group called ‘The HUB’. Many of them struggle with the same problems of low self-esteem and the burdens of expectation laid on them, but the big difference is in who they worship. I’ve found it one of the most encouraging things of my ten years in London so far, that as the gospel transforms the lives of these musicians, their assurance and esteem is transferred from themselves and onto the Lord Jesus Christ.

A larger perspective

To highlight this, Chris is a trumpeter who has just completed his Masters at the Royal Academy of Music. In June, he was asked to be principal trumpeter for the Hong Kong Philharmonic, starting September, just three months away. I asked him to write down his thoughts as he wrestled with making such a big decision in so short a space of time:

‘I know that as a Christian I am assured of an eternity with God in heaven through the work of Jesus on the cross. So in the larger perspective I know that this job isn’t anywhere near as important as keeping trusting in Jesus and holding fast to the hope of the gospel. If I accept the job I will be uprooted from my church family, and all my Christian friends in and around London who are a huge support to me. Will I find the same support out there, and will there be a church that will have an emphasis on teaching the Bible faithfully and holding out the Word of life? A Bible passage that comes to mind is Mark 8.34-38, where Jesus speaks of how the attitude to him in this life will have eternal consequences. I pray that God would keep me humbly trusting in Jesus through this offer, and that he would keep reminding me that this situation has only arisen by his sovereignty and not my own work. God has blessed me with some great Christian friends who have helped and encouraged me. I pray that he will do the same for me in my new situation, and that I will not lose my focus of who I am in Christ, and the glorious hope of heaven we can have thanks to his work on the cross.’

Christian first

There is a man who is quite clearly a Christian first, and a musician second.

Really, the issues that Christian musicians face are not much different from anyone else’s issues, if experienced a bit more intensely. If you love praying though, and have a spare minute or two, please pray for these young men and women, that they would worship their Creator rather than the gifts God has graciously created in them, and that they would hold on to and hold out the Word of life to their peers. Pray too, that those musicians who are bound up by the gods of success and fame would find their esteem and significance in Christ alone.

Pray for music students

Building confidence

A larger perspective

Christian first

Richard Simpkin

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