With Australian families, schools, and educators under pressure from the rising cost of living, it would be reasonable to expect that spending on private music tuition would be affected.

Yet it appears that the music tuition sector has yet to experience a significant contraction.

“I haven’t had any of my students or graduates come back to me and say they can’t get [private tuition] work at the moment,” says James Humberstone, Lecturer in Music Education at the Sydney Conservatory of Music.

“It is surprisingly resilient, and I think that’s because music is still a top priority for aspirational parents who understand that music is important not just intrinsically, for the love and pleasure of playing it, but for the effect that learning music has on other areas of study. That’s been pretty well documented over the years and as a result, music proficiency is immensely valued in some sectors of the community. People will go to great lengths to ensure their kids get that weekly or fortnightly lesson, even if it means dropping out of something else, like a sport class, for example.”

Photo © Siniz Kim/Unsplash

According to research undertaken by the...