Marble Foyer, Parliament House, 09:30 Tuesday 4 February 2025 and throughout the day in various corners...
ANAM musicians are heading to Canberra’s Parliament House on the first day of the building’s ‘school year’ to fill its marbled spaces with their music.
They’ll be performing everything from an Australian fanfare and George Gershwin to Irish reels and Beethoven, with a stylish take on Waltzing Matilda thrown in. For anyone stopping by the Marble Foyer on this first hectic day of this particularly hectic year, their sounds will provide something of a haven, away from the clicks, clashes and cacophony of the building’s more familiar soundtrack.
The musicians will also be taking their music to the children of the Early Childhood Centre and to the Canberra cityscape, via the Queen’s Terrace.
Described by ABC broadcaster Andrew Ford as “one of Australia’s cultural diamonds”, ANAM is a truly national institution, with the 2025 cohort representing 54 federal electorates. A vocational training institution – the music equivalent of the Australian Institute of Sport - ANAM delivers its musicians into leadership positions in orchestras and ensembles across the country and across the globe. “I can’t think of any other place where the obsession is just music”, enthuses the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Richard Tognetti. “It’s life changing, an extraordinary institution”.
In addition to their music, these future leaders of the country’s music sector will be bringing something else with them to Canberra: a plea for a safe roof over their heads.
A structural failure in their home in the South Melbourne Town Hall in October 2018 resulted in a section of roof collapsing on staff – two were lucky to escape with their lives – leading to the Academy’s evacuation from the building. They haven’t been back since, and students are getting increasingly desperate for security, certainty and a safe place to make music.
Following some initial seed funding, strong enthusiasm from all sides of politics for ANAM’s plans to rescue and reinstate the South Melbourne Town Hall has not yet been backed up with firm commitments. A $12.5M investment over three years from a future Australian Government would likely unlock further Victorian Government and philanthropic funding - adding to the $28M already raised by ANAM towards the $54M project - and deliver a project that will renew and refurbish the Town Hall and finally put an end to ANAM’s students’ wanderings.
So, lurking just under the surface of their take on I’ve got rhythm next Tuesday morning may be heard something a little more fragile, a little more raw and desperate. Says cellist Noah Lawrence “we just want to go home”.