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Every year, MCA commissions an address from a distinguished commentator on music.
These addresses are provided in the Adobe PDF format. To download the free Adobe PDF reader click here.
Andy Arthurs' 2007 MCA Annual Address, titled This Big Thing Called Music, focuses on ways to encourage a vibrant and relevant creative musical culture by returning to the basics of play. This spans kids enjoying their music-making to professionals becoming more entrepreneurial throughout their musical life. This is the philosophy behind the "Creative Industries" concept which has swept through the world in the past decade. The address was presented at the State Library of NSW, on Sunday, September 23, 2007.
Click here to read This Big Thing Called Music.
The Fifth Annual Address of the Music Council of Australia was delivered by Neil Fernandes at the Hotel Emerald, Perth, on Sunday September 24, 2006. Neil Fernandes is the Managing Director of Perth's Central TAFE. The title of the address is Education and the Power of the Power-Chord. Fernandes reflects on his experiences as a young rocker in Perth and on the very wide range of skills he developed as both player and manager of his band, the Manikins. He concludes that music can be both a lure and a means to post-school education.
Neil Fernandes is upbeat about the success of contemporary music in Perth, thanks to WAM and his own Centre. He says 'We’re actively building talent and an audience. That many young people aspire to success in what they perceive as a successful industry is not such a bad thing. That most of them won’t, is a reality and a pity; however, what we have now is a training framework whereby they can learn by doing what they like doing, while they aspire, and gain skills that are applicable in a wide range of workplace settings.'
Click here to read Education and the Power of the Power-Chord
The Fourth Annual MCA Address was given by Malcolm Gillies at the Council's 2005 Assembly at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane on September 25. Gillies turns the spotlight on orchestral music-making. He surveys the orchestras we have, and the orchestras we might have had; he then speculates about the orchestras twenty-first-century Australia might need. Balancing perspectives of excellence, education, entertainment and economics, Gillies proposes a new positioning of orchestras in relation to the broader range of artistic production.
Malcolm Gillies is President of the Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and a deputy vice-chancellor at The Australian National University. He is Chair of the contemporary-music ensemble Elision, Chair of the Australian Youth Orchestra, and was a member of the recent Federal Review of Orchestras. For many years he was a music critic for The Australian.
Click here to read The Orchestras We Need.
The Third Annual MCA Address was given by Julian Burnside at the Council's 2004 Assembly in Melbourne. Barrister Julian Burnside is in commercial practice but is probably best know to the general public for his advocacy on behalf of asylum seekers. He has a strong interest in the arts and is Deputy Chair of Musica Viva, Chair of fortyfivedownstairs, the Melbourne arts venue, and has commissioned a number of works from Australian composers. The address is a passionate plea for social advocacy by artists who through their art, says Burnside, are able to offer public dissent which could be forbidden through more direct communication in, for instance, the language of the public media.
Click here to read The Art of Dissent, OR, If you are crazy enough to be an artist, why not take on the establishment as well?
The second MCA Annual Address was given by Andrew Ford at the MCA’s Annual Assembly at the ABC studios in Sydney in 2003. Andrew Ford is a composer, author and commentator and is host of ABC Radio National’s Saturday morning Music Show. While on that show he presents music of many styles and in interviews with the performers displays the broadest knowledge of and affection for everything from country to experimental, here he asks, and answers in its spirited defence, Why Bother with Classical Music?
Click here to read the Address
The inaugural MCA Annual Address was given by Associated Professor Robin Stevens, head of music education at Deakin University in Melbourne, at the MCA Annual Assembly in Adelaide in 2002. Also present were members of the Australian Association for Research into Music Education. Dr. Stevens was the Principal Investigator at that time for the MCA’s study, Trends in Music Education Provision in Australian Schools, the report from which can be found in the Research section of this website. His address has a connection to that study.
Click here to read Why teach music in schools? Changing values since the 1850s.
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