{"id":148926,"date":"2025-09-17T04:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148926\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T04:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:26:09","slug":"jimmy-barnes-dave-faulkner-among-music-industry-voices-in-open-letter-urging-anu-to-keep-school-of-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148926\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Barnes, Dave Faulkner among music industry voices in open letter urging ANU to keep School of Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Barnes is among more than 40 music icons supporting an open letter to the embattled Australian National University (ANU) calling for the School of Music to be saved.<\/p>\n

In July, the ANU announced proposed cuts to dismantle the 60-year-old institution<\/a>, absorbing it into the School of Creative and Cultural Practice.<\/p>\n

The proposed changes include axing one-on-one instrumental lessons.<\/p>\n

They come as part of ANU’s major restructuring aiming to save $250 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Damage Australia’s cultural fabric’<\/p>\n

Members of the newly formed School of Music Advocacy Roundtable, with the support of more than 40 industry professionals, penned an open letter to ANU chancellor Julie Bishop on September 17 calling for the decision to be reversed.<\/p>\n

“If the proposed changes to the School of Music and the curriculum proceed, none of the students graduating will be employable as professional musicians,” the letter said.Loading…<\/p>\n

“The removal of one-on-one tuition and a shift away from professional standards will dismantle Canberra’s music pipeline, undermine national arts leadership, and damage Australia’s cultural fabric.<\/p>\n

“The decision has serious social and economic implications.<\/p>\n

“For students and early-career musicians, the loss of one-on-one training and clear pathways to professional work is devastating.”<\/p>\n

Jimmy Barnes joins the chorus\"Jimmy<\/p>\n

Jimmy Barnes has supported calls for the ANU to reverse its proposed cuts to the School of Music. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Barnes supported the letter and said the School of Music was a pipeline for world-class musicians.<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen how classical training and rock and roll can come together to create magic but that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we invest in serious music education,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If one of our leading universities walks away from its responsibility, it sends a clear message that we don’t value the next generation of musicians, and we can’t let this happen.<\/p>\n

“Music isn’t just entertainment, it’s an ecosystem. It supports jobs in venues big and small, it drives tourism, and it builds communities. The ANU’s plans to dismantle the School of Music put all of that at risk. They need to do better.”<\/p>\n

Music grows the economy<\/p>\n

Hoodoo Gurus frontman Dave Faulkner, who also supported the letter, said the proposed changes would stop the School of Music from doing what it was designed to do.<\/p>\n

“It’s turning the School of Music \u2014 which is based around fostering the next generation of performers and artists \u2014 and turning it into a place for music appreciation instead,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s taking away its primary role of one-on-one training of classical and jazz musicians. It’s not meant just for listening and talking about music.”<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Hoodoo Gurus frontman Dave Faulkner says the proposed changes to the School of Music prevent the institution achieving its purpose. (Christopher Ferguson)<\/p>\n

Faulkner said the changes wouldn’t just impact musicians.<\/p>\n

“Music is a very important thing for Australia as a country,” Faulkner said.<\/p>\n

“People don’t notice that, but it’s happening around them all the time, and it’s creating all this engine of employment and jobs.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The ANU School of Music. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)<\/p>\n

According to The Bass Line, Music Australia’s analysis of the music industry, it generated more than $8 billion in 2023-2024.<\/p>\n

Faulkner said the current proposed changes by the ANU were a one-size-fits-all solution that “makes no sense at all”.<\/p>\n

“They really have got to find another solution because that solution isn’t a solution,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know how they do it, but this isn’t the way.”<\/p>\n

Cease work order over staff safetyANU academic accuses Julie Bishop of bullying<\/a><\/p>\n

Former member of the Australian National University council Liz Allen uses a Senate inquiry investigating university governance to allege Chancellor Julie Bishop harassed, bullied, and threatened her.<\/p>\n

It comes as a cease work order was issued by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) regarding health and safety concerns at the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, which the School of Music currently sits within.<\/p>\n

NTEU ACT’s division secretary, Lachlan Clohesy, said the cease work order had been issued because it had been deemed there was an imminent threat to staff in the college.<\/p>\n

“It’s extremely serious,” he said.<\/p>\n

According to the cease work order posted around the university campus, the restructuring process, called Renew ANU, had caused “serious and ongoing harm” to staff, including “extreme mental health conditions” which could have “catastrophic consequences”.<\/p>\n

Mr Clohesy said a report by an elected health and safety representative delivered to the ANU last Thursday had not been acted on.<\/p>\n

“Since the report went in, things have got worse, not better,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We want to prevent the most catastrophic consequences of psychological injury happening on campus. That’s unfortunately the situation we are at.”<\/p>\n

The stop work order instructed workers to cease working on anything related to Renew ANU.<\/p>\n

Ms Bishop has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jimmy Barnes is among more than 40 music icons supporting an open letter to the embattled Australian National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2666,64,63,40586,2667,100368,134,36083,49870,47519],"class_list":["post-148926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-act","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-national-university","tag-canberra","tag-dave-faulkner","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-barnes","tag-julie-bishop","tag-school-of-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}