Australian music icons including Jimmy Barnes and Genesis Owusu have united to lend their support to a campaign hoping to save the Australian National University’s (ANU) School of Music.
Earlier this year, ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop and the ANU Council announced plans to dismantle the university’s storied School of Music, as a major cost-cutting exercise. The proposal said the School of Music would be relegated to “programme status” and absorbed into a new School of Creative and Cultural Practice, with a revised Bachelor of Music to replace the traditional one-to-one instrument model.
Seven positions — five of which are currently filled — focused on performance, composition, theory and musicology, would go. Music production, technology and Indigenous music would instead be prioritised.
In an open letter, the music leaders this week called on Bishop to halt job cuts, retain performance and composition majors, and maintain one-on-one music tuition to avoid a “devastating” impact on students and early career musicians.
Written by the newly formed School of Music Advocacy Roundtable, and signed by more than 40 high-profile supporters, the letter states that future ANU music graduates will not be qualified to become professional musicians under the proposed changes.
It also said that removal of one-on-one tuition and a shift away from professional standards would dismantle Canberra’s music pipeline, undermine national arts leadership, and change Australia’s cultural fabric.
Alongside Barnes and Owusu, other names who have joined the call to action including Dave Faulkner from Hoodoo Gurus, The Church’s Steve Kilbey, Frenzal Rhomb’s Lindsay McDougall, The Voice Australia star Lucy Sugerman, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers’ Scarlett McKahey, classical pianist Simon Tedeschi, live music venue Gang Gang, and recording house Infidel Studios.
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“I’ve seen how classical training and rock and roll can come together to create magic. But that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we invest in serious music education. If one of our leading universities walks away from its responsibility, it sends a clear message that we don’t value the next generation of musicians, and we can’t let this happen,” Barnes said of the proposed plans.
“Music isn’t just entertainment, it’s an ecosystem. It supports jobs in venues big and small, it drives tourism, and it builds communities. The ANU’s plans to dismantle the School of Music put all of that at risk. They need to do better.”
The School of Music Advocacy Roundtable was formed in response to the proposals, bringing together representatives of the professional music sector including orchestras, educators, performers, composers, students, and supporters.
The group’s chair, Robyn Hendry, said she was not surprised by the growing number of high-profile Australians lending a hand.
“Cutting off the pipeline of musicians, which is exactly what will happen if ANU pushes these changes through, has a much broader impact than denying music students the education they need and deserve,” Hendry said.
“As well as harming performance, it will strip the industry of the people who might become our future composers, producers, technicians, teachers, advocates and international ambassadors for Australian music. That we’ve heard from performers and industry leaders of all ages, genres and backgrounds demonstrates the level of concern across the board.
“It is not too late for the ANU to pause and reconsider its plans and for the governance Council to realign with the ANU ACT,” she continued.
“We are ready and willing to bring our industry experience to bear and collaborate on solutions that will offer an attractive product for students based in Canberra or who want to come to the nation’s capital, study at ANU and emerge at the end of it as professional musicians.”
