16 October 2025
Our Role as Musicians by Layla Maitri
Written by Layla Maitri, October 2025
As musicians, what is our responsibility to the broader community? This is something I have been thinking about following two of the Resonate sessions we have had this year, with the Hon. Ben Franklin and Aaron Wyatt respectively. For me, music is all about storytelling and about bringing people together. I am lucky enough to have grown up playing an instrument, and I can’t imagine my world without music, but this isn’t the case for many young people around Australia. So, what is my role in facilitating musical education and connections, and advocating for musical experiences to be accessible to everyone?
Ben Franklin is a member of the New South Wales parliament with vast experience in arts advocacy, shaping cultural policy and working with young people. We learnt about the structures and policies that determine how funding is distributed to arts organisations, and of the importance of continuous advocacy to secure support for the arts. Ben talked of the importance of continuous advocacy to secure support for the arts. “We tend to think that our art speaks for itself, but it doesn’t.” A necessary reminder that there is more to being a musician than playing the notes if we want our work to “get out there”. I think we have a tendency to underestimate the power we hold, as individuals and as a community, to instigate change locally and in society at large.
Listening to Ben talk about the ways in which we can advocate for the arts, both in an educational sense and more broadly, I was reminded of a concept I encountered in relation to the climate crisis; actions we take as individuals can be amplified when we communicate and advocate for change in a way that affects people beyond ourselves. This can be a catalyst for broad-scale change. The same is true for music. For example, there are only so many students we can teach, but by advocating for music to be an integral part of the school curriculum, for sufficient funding for music education and by working collectively, we can provide access to music education to many more students. Collaboration is at the heart of much of the music we make, so pooling our energies to advocate together for funding to support music in schools and the wider community should be readily achievable.
Connecting with students and audiences who may not have had access to classical music before is one of the many topics we covered in our final session for the year, with Aaron Wyatt. Aaron’s career is a truly an example of what it means to have a varied artistic life. He has extensive experience with many facets of the music industry as a violist, composer, conductor, educator and researcher. When asked about how to connect with people who may not have grown up with classical music, Aaron said “engaging someone with classical music is actually a much easier sell than we are led to believe,” but that the real struggle was in “building sustained, regular connections”, especially with regional communities. As individuals there is only so much we can do, tackling systemic barriers is where the work most needs to be done so that outreach efforts can be sustained.
Aaron stressed to us the importance of forgoing taking musical risks and exploring freedom of expression and collaboration in the quest for perfect technique. This resonated with me, as there have definitely been times when I have needed to pause to reflect on why I play the viola, and to reengage with the creative side of music making. It reminded me of “musicking”, a term coined by Christoper Small (1998), which encapsulates the celebration of a gathering of people to share in music and “their common humanity” in a way that is meaningful to them. This is something that can only be attained when we let go of the quest for perfectionism, and embrace collaboration.
This program has encouraged us to explore the issues and themes prevalent in our careers and the music industry at large, and has certainly given me a lot to consider as I think about my path moving forward. Music is something we will carry with us throughout our lives, and has so much power to bring people together and to create positive change. This program has given me pause to reflect on what my collaborative contributions to education, performance, and advocacy will be.