Below is a sample of the emails you can expect to receive when signed up to a nam.
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User ID: 17506 |
Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) South Melbourne Town Hall 210 Bank Street SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC 3205 AUSTRALIA http://www.anam.com.au |
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Dear Jack,
In the dying days of this wretched year I want to pause to thank you, as a member of the broad and generous ANAM family, for being here for us in 2020 and helping ferry us across the turbulent seas of the year that none of us will ever forget.
As I write, Australians are again falling ill, borders are closing, and we are bracing ourselves for more; this on top of the first and, from Melbourne, second waves; and this on top of the devastation of summer bushfires. To all those who have suffered, who have lost family or friends, or who have struggled through the debilitating isolation of the Melbourne lockdown, I extend ANAM's thoughts and prayers.
We are still trying to figure out just how music - the fragile vibrations of air that leads to songs, sonatas and symphonies - will emerge out of all this. Whilst music has likely been more important to more people than ever before this year, at the same time the structures that support its live flow are diminished and laid waste (more than one of our musicians, contemplating the treacherous professional waters before them, has chosen to lay their instruments down and look to other career possibilities). This bit is going to require serious work.
However I am confident that if any group of people can navigate a musical way out of 2020, those that gather in and about ANAM are they. As Wynton Marsalis, one of the many inspirational guests who Nick brought to 'on-line ANAM' this year, exhorted our musicians in August "When this is all over, we're going to need you up here on stage with us; so look after yourselves, but stay the course: this is important".
Something very special inhabits the soul of ANAM.
The dogged determination with which all those toiling away below deck have hurled themselves against the blistering trials of this year and, against all odds fashioned something very special, is truly remarkable. I am immensely proud of all the staff, faculty and musicians for the bravery that they displayed in taking on 2020.
Our administration team has acted with characteristic ANAMesque energy and ingenuity; and then some. Working from home they have delivered a roll call of the planet's greatest artists into the lounge rooms and breakout rooms of our musicians, whilst keeping our communities connected and our musicians safe. In the middle of grappling with this, and at short notice, they were required to turn around and engineer the relocation from our home of 22 years (and we are grateful to our new friends at the Abbotsford Convent for providing us with safe haven in this terrible storm).
It is a profound honour to lead these people.
John Daley, Chair, and our Board of Directors have been there for us at every turn. Our anchor, always sharply focusing on that which required their focus: the musicians, always the wellbeing of the musicians.
Our faculty have been heroes. Chained to their zoom screens, day in day out - a sort of water-music torture - not just to acquit a program, but to do absolutely everything humanly possible to draw art from the depths of our musicians; and, in turn, leave some magic behind. 2020 has shown us that not only is ANAM blest with a faculty of fine musicians, but also with women and men of strength and generous character.
And our young musicians. Scattered across the country, often bruised and often hurting, frustrated by not being able to 'play' - which for a musician, is akin to not being able to 'be' - their connection to us held hostage to the vagaries of bandwidth (there was one musician who attended classes perched on a bench outside his local library in order to access a better WIFI) separated from their peers and wider ANAM family: yes, for them it's been hardest. However, they have displayed remarkable resilience and made it through to the other side: one need only look at their rendering of the Britten to know 'they've still got it'!
Through all this turmoil and disquiet the extraordinary warmth and generosity of our supporters has sustained and nourished us: our repayment to you with ANAM music, whether it be in the company of Bach or Boulez, will be enthusiastically rendered before not too long.
How is it that ANAM - practice-based, face-to-face instruction focused, performance centred, as one of our musicians eloquently put it "ANAM is so not something that you can do on-line" - how is it that this analogue institution has survived, indeed thrived, on-line?
I believe that the uncompromising determination and high expectations modelled by Nick Deutsch during his first four years of shaping ANAM have carried us through his extraordinary fifth year: he has steered a confident course across these turbulent tides, enfolding us within his vision, holding us tight. The great sadness of course is that he was compelled to observe his institution navigating these trials from a distance, trapped in Germany in zoom. When discussions started with Artistic Director-designate Paavali Jumpannen regarding 2021 we were moved when he quietly but firmly indicated that he wanted his first international guest to be Nick. So we look forward to welcoming the immediate past AD back as our first guest artist in 2021, when he will lead an operatic dance about the grounds of our new home in Abbotsford.
Wherever you are, and under whatever trials you may still be labouring, I hope that you may be able to find some peace in these coming months. All members of the ANAM family - musicians, staff, faculty, board, our army of supporters - can be very proud of what has been fashioned from the rubble of this year. Whilst perhaps too early and too raw to say, some with long memories have already commented that just as the crisis of late 2008 was the making of the modern ANAM - demonstrating to those musicians that sometimes one must wage a fierce fight for what one loves most - so too I am quite certain that we will emerge from 2020 stronger, and committed with an even fiercer vigour to this beautiful activity.
Come March, when our eighty 2021 musicians are let loose in the superb grounds of our new home, nestled in the bend in the river, there'll be a musical riot, an 'unmute' to remember! I cannot wait to share some of that exhilarating noise with you.
Until then, stay safe.
Nick Bailey
General Manager
Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM)
Abbotsford Convent, C1.31 Convent Building
1 St Heliers St, ABBOTSFORD VIC 3067
E: n.bailey@anam.com.au
P: +61 3 9645 7911
M: +61 422 211 909
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