History of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The Conservatorium in its previous incarnation as the stables of Government House

When the doors of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (at that time known as the NSW State Conservatorium of Music) opened to students on 6 March, 1916 its stated aims were "providing tuition of a standard at least equal to that of the leading European Conservatoriums" and to "protect amateurs against the frequent waste of time and money arising from unsystematic tuition". The reference to European standards and the appointment of a European director was not uncontroversial at the time, but criticism subsided after the arrival the first Director, Belgian conductor and violinist, Henri Verbrugghen, in 1915. By all accounts, Verbrugghen was hugely energetic: Joseph Post, later himself to be director, described him as " a regular dynamo, and the sort of man of whom you had to take notice the moment he entered the room". One of his most significant achievements was to persuade the NSW Government to fund Australia's first full-time orchestra, made up of a mixture of professional players and Conservatorium students. Enrolments in the first year were healthy with 320 "single-study" students and a small contingent of full-time students, the first diploma graduations occurring four years later. A specialist high school (the Conservatorium High School) soon followed in 1919, establishing a model for music education across the secondary, tertiary, and community sectors which has survived to this day. Verbrugghen was the only salaried member of staff; the teaching staff, employed on a variable hourly rate, were forbidden to teach their instrument within a fifty-mile radius of the Con.

Verbrugghen's impact was incisive but briefer than had been hoped. When he put a request to the NSW Government that he be paid separate salaries for his artistic work as Conductor of the Orchestra (now the NSW State Orchestra) and educational work as Director of the Conservatorium, the Government said no and withdrew the subsidy, both of the Orchestra and the string quartet which Verbrugghen had installed. He resigned in 1921 after taking the Conservatorium Orchestra to Melbourne and to New Zealand.

Even without the subsidy, the Conservatorium Orchestra remained Sydney's main orchestra for much of the 1920s, accompanying many artists brought to Australia by J C Williamson's, including the legendary violinist, Jascha Heifitz, who donated money to the Conservatorium library for orchestral parts. However, at times during the later part of the stewardship of Verbrugghen's successor, Dr Arundel Orchard (Director 1923 Ð 1934), there were tensions with another emerging professional body, the ABC Symphony Orchestra (later to become the Sydney Symphony Orchestra), driven by the young, ambitious and energetic Director General of Music for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Bernard Heinze.

It was during the administration of the next director, Dr Edgar Bainton (Director 1934 - 1948), that the Conservatorium forged another professional association with the world of opera, with the foundation of the Conservatorium Opera School in 1935.

But it was under Sir Eugene Goossens (Director 1948 - 1955) that opera at the Conservatorium made a major contribution to what Roger Covell has described as " the most seminal years in the history of locally produced opera...", producing works such as Verdi's Falstaff and Othello, Wagner's Mastersingers and The Valkyries, Debussy's PellŽas and MŽlisande and Goossen's own Judith (with Joan Sutherland in the title role). Although the most significant musician to have held the post of Director, Goossens' tenure was not without controversy. Apart from the international scandal surrounding his departure in 1956, Goossens was said during his directorship to have channelled the best players in the Conservatorium Orchestra into the SSO (of which he was concurrently Chief Conductor), leaving only a student group for the Conservatorium. He disbanded the choir and several chamber ensembles because they were second-rate and, some claimed, tended to ignore administrative matters. Richard Bonynge, however, who graduated in 1950, felt that it was he who turned the Conservatorium into a world-class institution, lifting standards and exposing students to sophisticated twentieth century scores (particularly Debussy and Ravel) for the first time.

The directorships of Sir Bernard Heinze (1957 - 1966) and Joseph Post (1966 - 1971) saw more salaried staff appointments, the opening of the Newcastle Branch Conservatorium and building expansions on the northern and eastern sides of the Greenway building.

But it was during Rex Hobcroft's directorship (1972 - 1982) that the Conservatorium took on the modern educational profile which can be recognised today, with the focus on tertiary students in degree programs and a flourishing visiting artists program (which brought, among others, Wolfram Christ in 1982). Hobcroft articulated and, in the climate of funding largesse of the early 70s, substantially realised a vision of the Conservatorium as a "Music University" in which a range of specialised musical disciplines - performance (both classical and jazz), music education, composition and musicology - enriched each other. The next two directorships, that of John Painter (1982 - 1985) and John Hopkins (1986 - 1991), took the Conservatorium up to its most challenging structural change since the early 70s in its amalgamation with The University of Sydney in 1990 as part of the Dawkins Higher Education reforms. The responsibility of meeting these challenges, as well as refocussing the grand 70s vision in the context of the funding-strapped 90s, fell initially to Associate Professor Ronald Smart (Principal 1992 - 1994). However, following a major Review of the Conservatorium by The University of Sydney in 1994, significant structural changes were implemented. The short period as Acting Principal of (historian) Professor Ros Pesman (1994 - 1995) gave the necessary breathing space for the University to set in place a new leadership, which saw the appointments of Professor Sharman Pretty as Principal and Dean, from 1995 - 2003, and Professor Wolfram Christ, initially as Artistic Director, and later Visiting Professor (1996 - 2000).

Amongst the numerous recommendations of the Review handed to the incoming Principal and Dean for implementation was "That negotiations with the NSW State Government about permanent suitable accommodation for the Conservatorium be pursued as a matter or urgency". This was no mean challenge, given the thirty year history of discussion, complaints and procrastination with respect to the increasingly appalling accommodation arrangements. But, on the election of the Carr Government in early 1995, discussions began in earnest to solve the problem once and for all.

As in 1916, a wide range of sites were considered, many of them controversial. In May 1997, 180 years after Governor Lachlan Macquarie laid the foundation stone for the Greenway Building, the Premier of NSW, Hon Bob Carr MP announced one of the most significant initiatives in the Conservatorium's history - a major upgrade of the Conservatorium at its present site with the ultimate goal of creating a music education facility equal to or better than anything in the world. A team was assembled to work to that brief, resulting in a complex collaboration between various government departments (notably the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Public Works and Services), the Government Architect, US-based acoustic consultants Kirkegaard Associates, Daryl Jackson Robin Dyke Architects, the key users represented by the Principal and Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the Principal of the Conservatorium High School, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust and many others.

The building process necessitated the relocation of the Conservatorium's performance activities and the Conservatorium High School to the Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh for the period of redevelopment from 1998 to mid 2001. With the Conservatorium's Composition, Music Education and Musicology Units housed in an office building in Pitt St, the challenges (which had existed since the 1970s) of a split campus connected only by an umbilical railway line from Redfern to Wynyard became acute.

By the time of the relocation, the historic Greenway building, Governor Macquarie's stables, had housed music students for longer than it had housed horses. Nevertheless heritage was a sensitive issue. The redevelopment has restored Greenway's historic castellated building, removing newer additions to discreetly complement, enhance and enlarge the public green space of the Royal Botanic Gardens. For the city of Sydney it makes a major step towards the completion of the vision first enunciated by the then Conservatorium Director Eugene Goossens in 1947 when he lobbied Joe Cahill (Minister for Local Government, later Premier) for an Opera House on Bennelong Point to create a music precinct in the lower end of Macquarie Street. For the Conservatorium, it provides facilities of outstanding acoustic and architectural quality in which to serve the music and wider communities, and to educate future generations of performers, musicologists, composers and music educators.

Today, under the leadership of Kim Walker, Dean of the Conservatorium since 2004, new audiences are enjoying the most extensive programme of public performances ever mounted by the Conservatorium and a new generation of musicians is writing the next chapter in the institution's illustrious history.

For more on the Conservatorium’s history see
Sounds from the Stables - The Story of Sydney's Conservatorium by Dr Diane Collins (hardcover with photos, $45)