Graded Music Exams in Aotearoa New Zealand, Part 2

In recent decades, the repertoire lists for graded music examinations have increased in size to accommodate a wide range of tastes, preferences and future plans among participating students, but are the options diverse enough? Do they allow students to engage with their own cultures and communities? And what role does diversity play in breaking down the amateur-professional binary? In the wake of movements like Me Too and Black Lives Matter, teachers and learners are increasingly interested in covering music by a wide range of composers in order to see themselves better reflected in the music they play. This chapter reflects on the diverse nature of the cultures and histories that music exam boards serve and investigates how well the major boards operating in Aotearoa New Zealand—the home country of the authors—are responding to these demands, with a particular focus on New Zealand students and their needs. Drawing on the authors’ expertise and experience as leading performers and pedagogues in that country, it surveys the voice and recorder syllabuses, two disciplines that are accessible to people from all socio-economic groupings, to find what proportion of pieces are composed by women, people of non-European ethnicity and people from Australia and New Zealand, including the Indigenous cultures of the Pacific. The responsibility of exam boards to include a diverse range of repertoire in their exams and the role of teachers in facilitating diversity for their students are discussed.