ANAM and BPO

Brett Dean is the subject of our next Stage Door interview in the magazine (August). Michael Shmith discusses Dean's remarkable career with the composer-violist, with particular reference to his new opera, Hamlet, which will première at Glyndebourne in June 2017. (Arts Update, like many, eagerly awaits news of an Australian première.)

In the interview, Brett Dean – a former Director of the Australian National Academy of Music in South Melbourne – recalls Arts Minister Peter Garrett's notorious role in trying to close down ANAM in 2008 ('He would have seen the place closed').

Happily, ANAM survived Garrett's $2.5 million raid, and continues to flourish under the new leadership of Nick Deutsch. The Artistic Director has just announced a major new partnership with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy – a two-year residency for an ANAM student in the Academy, 'which includes a significant number of performances with the Berlin Philharmonic each year'. What a coup for a young Australian musician, performing with one of the world's great orchestras – in the Philharmonie.