We spoke to Professor Richard Kurth, Director of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne, about the ACO’s wide-reaching partnership with the University and its far-reaching benefits.
The University of Melbourne and the ACO have been partners since 2020. What does that partnership actually look like in practice?
It’s a genuine embedding of ACO artistry into how we train our students at the Conservatorium. This isn’t a ceremonial arrangement. ACO musicians work directly with our students across multiple annual workshops, performances, outreach and education initiatives, providing hands-on mentorship and real professional context that translates the unique ACO artistic level directly into the student experience.
ACO Musicians Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba, Ike See and Melissa Barnard, observing UoM student rehearsals
What form does that mentorship take?
Intensive workshops and masterclasses, held both here in Melbourne at the Ian Potter Southbank Centre and in Sydney at the ACO’s home, ACO On The Pier in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct – two inspiring places! Students work through focused repertoire study, ensemble coaching and career guidance in concentrated bursts that accelerate their development. And of course there are wonderful individual exchanges between ACO musicians and Conservatorium students and staff, and we experience the artistic commitment that makes the ACO so unique. The Sydney residency component is particularly powerful: students prepare both chamber orchestra works and string quartets to professional rehearsal standards in the ACO’s world-class facilities at Walsh Bay, and really feel the ACO energy there. Likewise, the ACO musicians are part of our family when they present workshops in Melbourne in The Ian Potter Southbank Centre.
ACO Violin Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba (right) with UoM Students
There’s also a research dimension to the partnership?
The University is running a five-year study examining the Orchestra’s in-school ACO Foundations program. Academics from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music and the Faculty of Education are investigating how classroom music-making shapes cognition, social development and wellbeing. It’s serious longitudinal research, designed to generate evidence that can inform educators and policymakers.
ACO Cello Julian Thompson with an ACO Foundations Student at Belle Vue Park Public School
What do you see as the lasting impact of the partnership?
The truly extraordinary ACO is unquestionably a world leader in both innovative creative concert programming and peak level performance. To engage with the ACO musicians throughout the year, and especially during the intensive workshops, is a constant inspiration and energy boost for us, showing us how to reach way past the present and achieve ambitious aspirations. Our graduates are not just better prepared for professional careers, they are inspired to a higher level, and that’s immediate and tangible. And our teaching and artistic staff are likewise energised and their creative impulses elevated. The research findings are also helping shape music education policy and practice more broadly, and that’s a longer game that matters enormously. This partnership has been an exciting growth experience, going wider and deeper each year. I think it’s very positive and powerful for both institutions.
ACO Cello Melissa Barnard observing quartet rehearsals
‘I really enjoyed polishing our piece and enhancing interpretational choices with the guidance of Melissa. Melissa held us to a high standard and gave very detailed feedback on ensemble, intonation and articulation. These technical skills helped to create a more cohesive and unified final product.
I was able to learn a lot from this intensive. It's the highlight of semester for most of us!’UoM Student Yo Yo, on our Chamber Music Intensive weekend in Melbourne
