Royal Academy don faces the music over ‘offensive’ tips email
‘Stereotyping musicians based on what instrument they play is alienating performers’
THE advice note circulated to students at the Royal Academy of Music was intended to help them get jobs and keep them. Instead, it caused a student revolt and led to the sacking of the senior lecturer who wrote it.
Dr Francesca Carpos was dismissed last week from the academy after her memo on how to earn a “good reputation” backfired spectacularly.
The note, emailed to 800 students last week, contained a glossary of terms that included a reference to violinists as “gypos”, a derogatory term for gipsies. It also advised students to “be discreet” and that “what’s on tour stays on tour”.
Friends said Dr Carpos, 58, a professional bassoon player, had been left shell-shocked and was considering suing the Royal Academy, whose patron is the Queen. She only began working for the academy, Britain’s oldest conservatoire, in September.
Her dismissal was sparked by the four-page “ideas” memo, in which she offered tips on networking and building a professional reputation.
In the email to explain terms students might hear when playing with professionals, Dr Carpos wrote: “Gypos (short for gypsies) = violinists specifically” while explaining that string players are known as “pond life” who are expected to drink in “tea rooms” while the brass section is more likely found in the pub.
The email sparked a furore on social media among students.
Dr Carpos then sent a further email explaining her remarks had been “taken out of context”. She said she was explaining how certain “colloquial terms” were used by musicians and apologised for any offence caused.
But the academy began disciplinary proceedings against Dr Carpos and sacked her almost immediately.
One student described Dr Carpos’s letter as “absolutely unacceptable”, adding that it encouraged “a toxic... environment in which musicians are complicit in the harassment of and discrimination against colleagues”. The student said the use of the word “gypo” was racist and that “stereotyping musicians based on what instrument they play is alienating performers who feel they do not fit the mold”.
A spokesman for the academy told The Daily Telegraph that the email had been unauthorised and it had gone “through normal HR procedures which led to the dismissal of this member of staff ”. Dr Carpos failed to return calls. But a friend said the dismissal was “unfair and outrageous”, that she planned to fight it and that the student reaction was “way over the top”.