ANAM’s sweet victory
December 9th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Well it would appear that sanity has prevailed. After weeks of acrimonious public debate, the minister has decided to recant.
One still wonders why it had to be this way. Surely dialogue with the stakeholders should have take place from day one! However, it’s a great result for classical music in Australia.
Australian national music academy wins reprieve – Herald Sun 9/12/08
That’s much better minister – The Australian 9/12/08
Academy emerges from clash – The Age 9/12/08
National academy of music reprieve – ABC Radio National Breakfast 10/12/08
Vale ANAM?
November 10th, 2008 § 3 Comments
JOURNALIST: The Australian national academy of music were quoted today in the paper saying that they weren’t sufficiently warned that their funding might be cut and that they might have to close. What’s your reaction to the statement they’ve put out ?
GARRETT: There’s been a very clear communication to the academy and the board. We’ve provided absolute certainty as to what our expectations are. My number one goal is to make sure that we provide the continuity of elite classical music training to those students who need it. That’s what the Government’s aim is and my expectation is that we will have something further to say about that. We’re in discussion with stakeholders. This is a decision that will be seen in time, I’m absolutely confident, to be good for music students not only in Victoria but right around Australia.
JOURNALIST: They seem to imply that they’ve been caught on the hop a bit – is there any chance of a reprieve?
GARRETT: I’ve made it very clear in my correspondence to the board that the Government’s expectations have been laid out, have been identified and ifthey’re unable to meet them, we need to make sure that there’s a more effective, better directed way of producing this kind of training for those elite classical musicians. I’m not going back on the decision in any way. We’re already in advanced discussions with stakeholders and I expect a good solution to come out of this decision – I think it was the right decision to make.
[ENDS]
Well, that would appear to be that. Come December 31st 2009, ANAM will be no more. The minister is standing by his earlier statement of the consequences of ANAM’s “non-compliance” with his ministerial directives.
The ANAM board has publicly denied that the ministerial directives were in any way clear or realistically achievable. His incompetent handling of this issue really takes your breath away.
ANAM must be replaced by something that is, in the minister’s own words “a more effective, better directed way of producing this kind of training for these elite classical musicians.”
If he fails to achieve this outcome, the tragic irony of Minister Garrett’s pre-election accusations of the previous government being “cultural philistines” will be remembered along with his legacy of destroying ANAM as a superb centre of excellence in Australian classical music.
Alex Millier
Principal Bass Clarinet
WA Symphony Orchestra.
Letter from ANAM student….
October 30th, 2008 § 1 Comment
“And to cut back public support would be a fatal error, not only for cultural institutions but also for the whole country. Once support is cut, it takes thrice as long to build it up again. And that may never happen. That’s why every cut, every measure which diminishes quality has to be fought.”
Simone Young speaking on Cultural Funding in Germany from the DVD “From Hamburg to Downunder”.
My name is Ashley William Smith and I am a clarinetist studying at the
Australian National Academy of MusicI am one of several students from Perth who have/are benefiting enormously
from the unique performance training that ANAM offers. I come from an
average, non-musical, working-family in Noranda and attended my local
state school. I purchased my first clarinet as the result of washing
trays at the local butcher at the age of eleven. I completed a
Bachelor of Music at the University of Western Australia where I
graduated with several prizes, including a nomination for the J.A.
Wood Prize for the most outstanding graduate of the University for 2008.I am heavily indebted to my teachers and lecturers at UWA for their
excellent teaching and their commitment to music and the careers of
their students. Given the resources and the number of
performance-career focused students at UWA, I have been given an
undergraduate education which I know is second to none in the country.
However, I have learnt more from the last nine months I spent at the
Academy than from the five years I spent at UWA. It is impossible to
recreate the ANAM model in each state. There are
simply not the resources, the number and quality of students, as well
as the number of visiting artists that the ANAM’s model, as the
centralised ‘national’ school, allows. Being continuously surrounded
by Australia’s fifty most talented young musicians in a hot-house
environment is an experience which no state based model would provide.
I would not be able to ‘tackle life as a professional musician’ were
it not for my (hopefully ongoing) time at ANAM. The last
nine woodwind placements in professional Australian orchestras went to
ANAM students or alumni. As I intend to pursue a career as a soloist
and contemporary / avant-garde musician (where the competition is even
more intense) the specialised opportunities that ANAM provides are of
even more significance.I must also point out that the musicians of Perth have had fair
representation at the Academy. Others, with whom I am sure you work
with regularly, include Madeleine Boud, Louise McKay, Shaun Lee-Chen,
Rebecca White, Eve Silver, Nick Metcalfe, Alex Brogan, Heather
McMahon, Joanne Brown and Doree Dixon. As the result of its extensive
audition programme, Academy Musicians hail from all over the country.
In our wind section alone there are students from Newcastle NSW, Coffs
Harbour NSW, the Mornington Peninsula VIC, Port Sorrell TAS, the Gold
Coast QLD as well as Perth. There are also many Academy Musicians from
rural areas, including AYO principal violist Tara Houghton who is from
outback Queensland. Maxwell Foster, the
2008 Young Performer of the Year, has traveled from Brisbane to study
at the Junior Academy.It must be noted that the reason that ANAM has not toured interstate
is because of a lack of adequate funding – not because of the
decisions of the ANAM board. Most recently ANAM has toured as
extensively as it can. Woodwind quintets and string quartets performed
interstate just last year.ANAM is also the chief cultivator of cross-institutional contact in
this country. For instance, ANAM invited students and teachers from
every music institution in the country (including UWA and WAAPA) to
take part in the master-classes and concerts for the ‘Piano!’
festival. Three times this month, the ANAM orchestra has joined forces
with the percussion and brass classes of the VCA. This Friday I am
performing a work with a violinist who has been specially sent down
from the Brisbane Conservatorium. The Academy has also hosted a brass
festival, an oboe festival and many vocal programmes which are open to
non-Academy musicians. Non-ANAM music students can attend most
concerts and master-classes for free. There is no other music
institution (other than AYO, perhaps) that dedicates itself so
strongly to bringing together the young musicians of the country.Most ANAM visiting artists are already in Melbourne as the result of appearances
for Musica Viva, the ACO and the MSO. This is emphasises the need for
ANAM, as a centralised model, to exist in the city which is
undoubtedly the cultural capital of the nation. If we sent these
international artists all over the country to teach do a master-class
and for two students, the costs to the tax-payer would be astronomical.I firmly believe that ANAM does not degrade the value of our tertiary
institutions but, on the contrary, raises their standard. I personally
know of several UWA musicians who wish to ‘polish’ their undergraduate
knowledge by attending ANAM in the future. The extremely intense
competition to enter the Academy means that these undergraduate
musicians are working harder than ever. If ANAM is closed, I am sure
it will result in a lowering of standard in music institutions across
the whole country.Ashley William Smith
Academy Musician (Clarinet)
