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by Michael Nelson

After almost two years at the helm of the Australian National Academy of Music, and now going to a new job as Managing Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Trevor Green's enthusiasm for developing young Australian musicians appears boundless.

Despite the enormous success of the Academy during his time as director, Green seems loathe to talk about it. What is important to him is the Academy's future and he is hoping his move in February will be the first step in the process of bringing these two natural partners together.

'It was a very difficult decision to make, leaving the Academy. But looking at where it is now, I think the best way for it to develop and grow is through partnerships, and I'm hoping one of those partnerships might be with the MSO. It could be a very exciting development, not just for Victoria, but for the whole of Australia.'

Green makes it plain that he feels the Academy shouldn't be taking a part-time interest in developing young talented musicians. To train them to the point where they are of the calibre to perform with the country's premier orchestras and then leave them is, he says, only doing half the job.

'At the end of the day, the Academy will be judged on what's happened to our young musicians. Have they got jobs, are they soloists, are they in the recording industry and so on. I think if we can demonstrate that they've gone on to work with orchestras because of the contacts they made through the Academy, that means the Academy is doing its job. That's what it's all about, getting young musicians a career in music.'

With that in mind, Green's time at the Academy seems to have been well spent, with a host of Australian and international maestros coming through the doors to teach the country's finest young musical talents.

One of those, 17 year-old Sarita Kwok, has been involved with the Academy for a year, and is clearly benefiting from the experience. After a successful audition, she participated in the Sonata Program at the beginning of 1998, an all-instruments program which gave students from all around the country the opportunity to hone their skills performing chamber music. Kwok obviously shone, and as a result was one of the violinists offered a place in last October's masterclass by Lord Yehudi Menuhin.

'The Menuhin masterclass was the weekend before my HSC, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world! It was awesome, and the man himself is quite remarkable. Every word he says seems so important. There were four of us in the class, and he had so much to offer each of us,' Kwok says.

Kwok is spending a month studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London in early 1999 as part of the Academy's Big Brother scholarship program.

'The Academy is a wonderful organisation. I don't think there's any other institution which offers programs like this. It offers intensive training, not only with students of similar levels, but with world renowned musicians. Things like the Menuhin masterclass for example, I don't think I could have experienced those things anywhere else,' Kwok says.

'The contacts you establish going to the Academy are great. It means you meet professional musicians who can tell you what it's like in the "real world" out there'.

From Dame Joan Sutherland and Stanley Drucker to Lord Menuhin, the quality and quantity of performers who have worked with the Academy is impressive. But for Green, the true strength of the Academy comes from the local talent.

'For me the highlight of working at the Academy has been the commitment from the Australian music teachers working and living in this country. At the end of the day, we're about training and teaching and learning, and people like David Ferrera, Dean Olding, Bill Hennessey, the list goes on, they've got so much to offer,' Green says

'The most exciting thing for me is that the Academy not just survive but flourish in the future, with a faculty which is at least two thirds Australians. And I know that with the musicians we have here at the moment, and the next generation of musicians coming through the Academy now, the pool of extraordinary teachers and performers is really only the beginning.'

The future of Australian music has never sounded so good.

The Australian National Academy of Music is within the Commonwealth Arts portfolio.

Contact
Australian National Academy of Music 1800 248 861 (toll free)

• Document ID: 11507 |
• Last modified: 5 February 2008, 6:06pm