The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music is the

music school A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

and part of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne City Centre on the Southbank campus of the University of Melbourne. Degree programs specialising in music performance,

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

, interactive composition,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and improvisation, conducting, pedagogy and

music therapy Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music t ...

are taught at the Conservatorium, which also runs an Early Music Studio, and oversees the publishing house Lyrebird Press. It offers graduate programs including certificates and diplomas, and research and coursework awards at the masters and doctoral levels.

History

The teaching of music at the University of Melbourne has been undertaken under a number of administrative structures. The first award of a degree in music (a

Bachelor of Music A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

) was recorded in 1879, and the first Chair of Music, endowed by

Francis Ormond Francis Ormond (23 November 1827 – 5 May 1889) was a Scottish-born Australian pastoralist, member of the Parliament of Victoria and philanthropist in the areas of education and religion. Ormond is notable for founding the Working Men's Coll ...

– known as the Ormond Professor of Music - was occupied from 1891, even though there was not yet a department or faculty of music at the university. Through the efforts of the first Ormond Professor, G. W. L. Marshall-Hall, this was rectified in 1894 with the founding of the "University Conservatorium", whose leased premises were located in the Queen's Coffee Palace, a six-storey building on the corner of Rathdowne and Victoria streets, Carlton. By the end of the year 1900, the teaching staff had grown to 24, and the students' concerts at the Town Hall and Her Majesty's Theatre were a vital part of the social and artistic life of Melbourne. :Following a vigorous campaign by his detractors, Marshall-Hall lost his tenure, to be replaced by Franklin Peterson, but was able to continue running the music school as a private concern in the old

Victorian Artists' Society The Victorian Artists Society, which can trace its establishment to 1856 in Melbourne, promotes artistic education, art classes and Art museum, gallery hire art gallery, exhibition in Australia. It was formed in March 1888 when the Victorian Acad ...

Gallery, opposite St Patrick's Cathedral, Albert Street, East Melbourne, renaming it the "Marshall-Hall Conservatorium", later "Albert Street Conservatorium", " Hart's Conservatorium", and finally "

Melba Conservatorium The Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music was a school of music located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. During its early days it was closely associated with opera diva Dame Nellie Melba, after whom it was later named. In 1994 it became affil ...

". With the departure of much of the teaching staff and students to Albert Street, the University was obliged to create its own Conservatorium on University Grounds. The foundation stone for a permanent Conservatorium in Royal Parade, on the University campus, was laid by (later Dame)

Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic lyric coloratura soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, and was the f ...

on 26 November 1909, and the building, designed by Bates, Peebles & Smart, was opened in 1913. Assisted by a donation of £1,000 from a benefit concert arranged by Melba, which was matched by the Victorian State Government, the concert room now known as Melba Hall was added and opened by the Governor-General, Lord Denman, on 29 October 1913. :After the death of Peterson, and Marshall-Hall's reinstatement, the two conservatories were expected to merge, but the staff and students of the breakaway institution decided otherwise, perhaps fearing discrimination by the University Council against its various German-born teachers. Fritz Hart, its director since the departure of Eduard Scharf, chose to remain at its head, to be succeeded by

Harold Elvins Harold Stanley James Elvins (March 1878 – 28 January 1943) was an Australian pianist, the third and last proprietor of the school of music founded in Melbourne by George Marshall-Hall as a rival to the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music establis ...

. The Conservatorium became the Faculty of Music within the University of Melbourne in 1926, and its first Dean was appointed. This was to be the administrative structure for the next 65 years.

Contemporary times

The Faculty of the VCA and Music was created in 2009 from the amalgamation of the University's Faculty of Music and Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts. On 1 January 2012 the two operating divisions became known as the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (Faculty of VCA and MCM). On 1 January 2018, the Faculty's name was changed again to the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. The Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium remain as schools within the Faculty. In March 2019 the majority of Conservatorium operations moved to the new Ian Potter Southbank Centre, a state of the art facility for music. This makes the Southbank Campus of the University of Melbourne the largest creative tertiary education provider situated inside an arts precinct in the country, and one of the few so located in the world.

Notable people

Ormond Professor of Music

* G. W. L. Marshall-Hall, 1891–1900 *Franklin Peterson, 1901–1914 *G. W. L. Marshall-Hall, 1915 * W. A. Laver, 1915–1925 *Sir

Bernard Heinze Sir Bernard Thomas Heinze, AC, FRCM (1 July 189410 June 1982) was an Australian conductor, academic, and Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. He conducted all the orchestras run by the ABC, most particularly the Melb ...

, 1926–1957 *George Loughlin, 1958–1979 *

Michael Brimer Michael Brimer (8 August 1933 – 7 March 2023) was a South African-Australian pianist, organist, conductor, composer, musicologist, and academic. Biography Brimer was born in South Africa and studied with Eleanor Bonnar, a pupil of Leopold Godow ...

, 1980–1989 *Warren Bebbington, 1991–2008 * Gary E. McPherson, 2009–present

Directors of the University Conservatorium

* G. W. L. Marshall-Hall, 1895–1900 *Franklin Peterson, 1901–1914 *William Laver, 1915–1925 *Sir

, 1926–1957 *J. Sutton Crow, 1943–1945 *George Loughlin, 1958–1974

Deans of the Faculty of Music

, 1926–1942 *J. Sutton Crow, 1943 (Acting) *Sir

, 1944–1952 *Charles Moorhouse, 1953 (Acting) *Sir

, 1954–1957 *Donald Cochrane, 1957 (Acting) *George Loughlin, 1958–1965 *Richard Samuel, 1966 *George Loughlin, 1967–1970 *Raymond Martin, 1971 *George Loughlin, 1972–1974 *Maxwell Cooke, 1975–1980 *

, 1981–1985 *Ronald Farren-Price, 1986–1990

Head of the School of Music within the Faculty of Music, Visual and Performing Arts

* John Griffiths, 1991 *Warren Bebbington, 1992–1994

Deans of the Faculty of Music (re-instituted)

*Warren Bebbington, 1994–2006 *Cathy Falk, 2007 (Acting) *Cathy Falk, 2008

Directors of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

* Gary E. McPherson. 2011–2019 (Head, School of Music within the Faculty of the VCA and MCM, 2009–2010) * Richard Kurth. 2019-

Graduates

Helen Adams Helen Adams (born 30 May 1978) is a Welsh television personality who rose to fame in the United Kingdom when she was chosen to be a contestant on the second series of the reality television show ''Big Brother UK'', in 2001. ''Big Brother'' Ad ...

, soprano * Arthur Chanter (-1950), composer * Bryony Marks, composer * Antoinette Halloran, operatic soprano *

Anna O'Byrne Anna O'Byrne (born 20 September 1987 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian actress and soprano singer best known for her portrayal of Christine Daaé in Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''The Phantom of the Opera'' and the original Australian product ...

, operatic soprano * Siobhan Stagg, operatic soprano * Stacey Alleaume, operatic soprano

References

Loughlin, G. F., 1984. Cities of Departure: An Autobiography

External links

Official website

Music Students' Society of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music
{{coord missing, Victoria (state) Music schools in Australia University of Melbourne Universities and colleges established in 1894 1894 establishments in Australia Music in Melbourne