If educational institutions, from colleges to universities, could not enforce such a rule, then "one has to start thinking about" legislation, he said. Berkeley – the first composer apart from Andrew Lloyd Webber to be given a peerage since his godfather Benjamin Britten in 1976 – was referring to the alleged sex abuse recently uncovered at Chetham's School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, which, he said "would concern one as a peer".
segxwal relations between teachers and students aged under 18 has been illegal since 2001. But Berkeley said there should be an additional blanket ban on relations between teachers and pupils of any age. This was despite his having some sympathy for "a teacher and someone over the age of consent who fall in love, which is different from people who preyed on young girls for their own lustful gratification".
Berkeley, 64, said he understood the conditions under which abuse could flourish at a music school. "What is important to understand is the extreme vulnerability of a pupils … for whom the teacher may be some sort of guru …There is a huge responsibility attached to that."
The same was true for young dancers, "who have to delve deeply into their psychosegxwal makeup" and may transfer emotions on to their teachers. Berkeley recalled his own experience with Britten, whom he visited and worked with as a boy chorister: though the older composer never behaved inappropriately with Berkeley, his fascination with young boys is well known, and Berkeley believes it would have been easy for him to cross the line had he wished to.
"We hero-worshipped him. He loved being with children – was rather childlike himself – and loved being with boys most of all. Had he wanted to do something we would have been very confused." After extensive investigation by Britten's biographer Humphrey Carpenter and the filmmaker and author John Bridcut, no evidence has ever come to light that Britten was guilty of abuse. Berkeley said an important part of his work as a peer will be to further the interests of music and the arts in education. "Access for the arts, especially for children, is a right.
It allows children to discover a sense of themselves and makes us a more humane society." He said he believed music should be "on the Ebacc" and emphasised the importance of rigorous academic training for composers: "I still remember my O-level music – analysing the set pieces in the same way as one might understand the logic of physics."
He said he would represent the interests of composers in the House of Lords. "I do feel quite strongly that composers are in a parlous state. Apart from those with an international reputation there is precious little money to commission them and groups find it very difficult to get money together to do so. I'd like to see what we can do."
Berkeley, who presents Private Passions on Radio 3, is no stranger to high office, having served on the board of the Royal Opera House during its most crisis-ridden period in the late 1990s. But, he said, his work in the Lords would not stop him composing. He has written an anthem for the enthronement of the new archbishop of Canterbury; is writing a series of cabaret songs with words by novelist and longtime collaborator Ian McEwan, and plans a concerto for violinist Daniel Hope.
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