CSO CEO Rachel Thomas says changes to the School of Music present a risk to the orchestra. Photo: Martin Ollman.
The Canberra Symphony Orchestra has pitched a proposal to the Australian National University about how performance study could be retained at ANU if it followed through with its plan to axe the School of Music and pare back music degrees.
The proposal has alarmed the CSO, which looks to the School of Music as a local pipeline of musicians to fill its ranks, including the school’s teachers.
It says ANU’s plans for the School of Music to be absorbed into a new School of Creative and Cultural Practice, with a revised Bachelor of Music replacing one-to-one instrument tuition, puts the orchestra at risk, as well as Canberra’s entire arts ecosystem.
CSO CEO Rachel Thomas said ANU had been told its plans threatened the quality and long-term viability of the orchestra, which has a long-term relationship with the university, being based there and performing at Llewellyn Hall – the only venue in Canberra purpose-built for classical music.
Ms Thomas fears that without the performance component, Canberra will lose high-calibre students and teachers to other institutions where they can gain the experiences they need to advance their studies.
“…Which would be really sad for Canberra because we have such a pedigree in terms of the musicians that have come out of the School of Music over the years,” she said.
“We think every capital city should have a symphony orchestra and we’re the nation’s capital so we’re not keen on jeopardising that.”
The high-level proposal offers the CSO’s support to retain and maintain performance through potential partnerships with CSO artists, educators and networks.
The CSO has been going from strength to strength. Photo: Arriane Schlumpp.
Ms Thomas said the CSO was keen to form a joint working group with the university to look at how those partnerships could be structured, whether other models in Australia could be options, and how soon these could be set up.
“We’re ready to work constructively with the ANU to offer targeted support that would allow those performance-focused students to continue to live and study in the ACT,” she said.
“What that looks like, of course, we don’t know until we have an opportunity to have those conversations.”
Ms Thomas said the CSO wanted to work collaboratively and constructively to ensure the university understood the impact the changes would have in Canberra.
The CSO was not consulted before the changes were announced but was bracing for the School of Music to be affected by the cost-saving measures sweeping ANU.
Ironically, ANU’s proposals came when the CSO was riding high with last year’s $4.1 million injection of Commonwealth funding allowing it to expand its scope and its concerts filling Llewellyn Hall.
“The orchestra is going from strength to strength,” Ms Thomas said.
“We just had two sold-out concerts last week and many people who have never attended an orchestral concert before attended these two concerts.”
The ANU plan could mean a smaller orchestra that lost its vibrancy and was not able to be the strong member of the community that it is.
Ms Thomas said axing performance studies threatened the CSO’s standards and a smaller orchestra would not be able to stage certain works.
Bringing in musicians to maintain numbers would also be expensive.
Ms thomas said that with many School of Music students and lecturers also teaching children, the changes would also impact the development of music at a grassroots level.
“We rely on these remarkable artists to be passing on their knowledge and that is really important to the artists themselves to be able to do that,” she said.
Losing that early training ground would also affect the CSO’s pathways program, which identified children from eight years old.
“The idea of that program is that there is a School of Music for those students to go on to.”
She said a symphony orchestra was something for which the city could be proud.
“It’s just a really important part of the fabric of the city, what the orchestra gives back to the community, everything from our concerts at aged care centres, Rediscovering Music [for people with hearing loss], all of the community work that we do.
“All of this will start to dry up, which will be a great loss for the city.”
The CSO has asked for a response from ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell by 7 August.
