FAIRFAX: VCAM Music “Cultural Morgue” / Music Staff Speak Out For Their Students
Posted by savevca1 on July 13th, 2010
Melbourne Times 14 July 2010
Melbourne Weekly journalist Bianca Hall has revealed senior Music staff fear the once vibrant VCA Music and UoM Music schools, now combined into VCAM Music, are becoming a “cultural morgue” as a result of the failed merger and severe financial cut-backs. VCAM Music has bore the brunt of the merger, being the only Melbourne Model stream at VCAM and having two completely different faculties being sticky-taped together. Read the article here:
- Web Version (you have to register for free with Melbourne Weekly first)
- OR PDF Version
The story was republished in the Melbourne Times on 14/07/10.
The concerns of music staff are in line with numerous emails and calls SAVE VCA have received over the past month, pointing to a very obvious deterioration of VCAM Music including:
- Pre merger VCA and UoM Music each had their own orchestras, with UoM Music at times having two orchestras of its own. In 2010 there is now a single orchestra at VCAM, effectively halving the opportunities for students.
- In 2010 not only has the opportunity to play in, write for or conduct the orchestra been halved, but also the amount of public performances has been drastically cut. In 2009 Southbank alone staged six public performances, whereas in 2010 the entire VCAM is only performing four. Compounding the problem is 2010 second-semester VCAM performances are for chamber orchestra. The smaller orchestral forces of the chamber orchestra mean there a fewer positions available for students to participate.
- The opportunities for composers to have their compositions properly rehearsed and performed has been reduced. In 2009, VCA composers had 15 hours of rehearsal with an orchestra before their piece was performed in public and recorded as part of ‘Sound Out’. In 2010, composers get a one-hour “read through” of their piece with no public performance.
- Cross-media opportunities – the hallmark of a VCA Music education – are not being safeguarded and are likely to be cut.
- The VCAM Music Melbourne Model is failing students who want a career as professional musicians, and is not even competitive locally let alone internationally.
- The rate of staff cuts has been so severe, that VCAM is now at the point it cannot cope with even one technical support staff being away ill. The loss of music industry heavyweights as a result of staff cutbacks is likely to contribute to an isolation of VCAM Music from the professional music industry.
Former Head of VCA Music Tony Gould spoke out in yesterday’s The Age Letters to the Editor, saying:
Value of the arts
GABRIELLA Coslovich’s excellent article (The Age, 10/7) is a reminder of the ignorance of politicians in relation to the arts. How many times do artists such as Oscar-winning animator Adam Elliot and the likes of Geoffrey Rush have to argue the case for supporting the existence and independence of the Victorian College of the Arts? Sadly, arguing an issue with people who have no idea what you are talking about – arts ministers included – apart from how much it will cost, is futile.
This shameful state is not helped by a university (and the faculty of music within) that never wanted the VCA – ”an arrangement made in hell”, one senior staff member suggested to me. Universities are wonderful places (well, not all of them) but for many reasons the creative arts do not fit at Melbourne. The review by Ziggy Switkowski (I don’t remember coming across that name in the world of the arts) might force the issue into the area of common sense. It might pay respect to artists who know the value of both the arts and arts training to society and culture. But I do not believe in miracles.
As pointed out by Mr Gould, we still wait for Victorian Premier John Brumby, new Federal Education Minister Simon Crean or Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett to show the remotest interest in VCA, trailing behind the Victorian Liberals and the Australian Greens who already have detailed VCA policy.
Are you a music student or staff member? You can post your comments below (you can post anonymously).
Tony’s letter highlights the need for some political will on the matter of the VCA – and that despite the ‘talk’ VCA no longer exists as a centre of teaching and cultural uniquity and excellence in Melbourne. Only Improvisation has so far avoided the slide into the new generation Bachelor of Music with its substantial breadth component.(The university can insist that breadth is a small component of the degree but to my knowledge of the experiences of students who are striving to master their instruments – this is not the case). It is quite simply a case of an inappropriate cultural paradigm usurping the evolution of a local and highly relevant cultural producer – all in the quest for “Ivy League Status”( none of the great Ivy league Universities are highly regarded as Centres for performance excellence).
The future for all of the Arts within this type of University as ‘diversions’ for the serious academic is well documented in a proposal from a Harvard Arts academic that we as staff received as part of the argument for the Melbourne Model last year. If the Government fails to support the re – stating of the VCA as an independent entity then decades of work will have been for nothing – but more ludicrously, the whole process will just start from scratch in some other institution as perceptions of the university’s inability to provide for aspiring artists expands.
I live and work in Asia, coming to Australia only for a few days each month. However I am an Australian citizen and was honoured to be a foundation member of the VCA’s music staff. I would like to take this opportunity to reinforce the key points Tony Gould is making. The demise of the VCA is a national tragedy. This tragedy transpired through deeply flawed comparisons of the VCA with other “academic” institutes. But the continued unfolding of the tragedy is perpetuated by ignorance – this time from well-meaning “experts” who have only a limited comprehension of the specific needs of artists in the pursuit of their craft. Indeed most of these experts, including eminent individuals who may have excelled in other domains, are indoctrinated in the ways of professional managerialism – a framework applied to the goals of productive efficiency that infuses today’s corporations and government departments. Over the years professional managerialism has successfully sucked the life and joy out of human enterprise. While suitable for the mass manufacturing of products it has been indiscriminately applied to almost every aspect of our lives. As a consequence we live within a worldview utterly dominated by the notion of “value” as a factor related to economic growth, wealth creation and efficiency. Value in this sense is mostly ephemeral; it has nothing to do with the enduring treasure created by artists in our midst. And yet it is by these yardsticks that the arts are increasingly measured. The reality is that the VCA can only survive if the original “mentor – protege” model that runs like a golden thread through human history is restored with integrity. That means consciously investing in the development of young artists and in training institutions like the VCA as a vital part of our social fabric and identity. In today’s world, when corporate greed, economic crisis and environmental disasters grab the headlines I don’t hold out much hope that politicians or management executives can comprehend this view. I hope I am wrong.
So why the deathly silence from Glyn Davis and Sharman Pretty? Ziggy’s report should have produced some immediate effect but we see feet being dragged, delay tactics, and the continued white-anting of the VCA. At he same time John Brumby really needs some good press, and protecting the VCA would certainly take the wind out of the sails of the opposition parties – so why won’t he do it??
How things change so quickly in the midst of chaos? This week acting dean Warren Bebbington announced to music staff that the Improvisation dept. at VCAM will not be part of the new Conservatorium, but will stay with the VCA as part of a new contemporary music school. It is interesting that there is an enclave in the UOM music faculty who dont want to see the presence of improvisation in their music programme – and while this shows some real philosophical problems within the faculty on many levels, it nevertheless is welcomed by improvisation students and staff who were worried about the future of the discipline within the music faculty framework.