Welcome to the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music

Latest News

• VCA alumni chosen for the coveted Impact Australia screenwriting program

  27 September 2022

  Impact Australia was launched this week at the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Faculty of Fine Arts and Music was delighted to learn that three of our alumni Dannika Horvat, Jordan Prosser and Elias Jamieson Brown were among those chosen to participate in the...

  • Victorian College of the Arts

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• Vale Shirley McKechnie AO (1926 - 2022)

  13 September 2022

  The Victorian College of the Arts joins the Australian dance community in mourning the loss of the indelible, Shirley McKechnie AO, who throughout her life remained a seminal figure of Australian dance as an educator, researcher, and advocate.McKechnie’s legacy is felt deeply across the broade...

  • Victorian College of the Arts

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• 'I wanted to stand out from the crowd': Meet Master of Producing graduate Mario Biancacci

  12 September 2022

  Mario Biancacci’s path to being an international film producer wasn’t exactly pre-ordained. But he’s made his way from a Bachelor of Science to a Robbie Williams biopic with adaptability, resilience and an eye for the bigger picture – as well as a graduate degree in producing...

  • Victorian College of the Arts

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• Melbourne Conservatorium of Music students to perform with Melissa Aldana at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival

  05 September 2022

  A new partnership with the Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF) will enable University of Melbourne students from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music to perform at Australia’s largest jazz festival, an annual celebration that showcases the highest calibre of jazz and improvised music...

  • News

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• Looking forward: Director Dialogues address key areas of focus for the VCA in its 50th year

  31 August 2022

  The Victorian College of the Arts’ (VCA) 50th anniversary represents a chance to reflect on the last half-century of arts practice in Naarm/Melbourne and position itself for the next.

  • VCA 50

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• 'If you can show call opera, you can show call anything': Meet Will Barker, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production) graduate

  30 August 2022

  It might seem like a long road from your living room to the Sydney Opera House, but for Will Barker, the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production) helped him make that leap. Will talked to us about his study experience and the hustle of a creative career – and how he went from miniature set models to...

  • Victorian College of the Arts

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• Joining the band: How new music technologies are helping students with disability access music education

  25 August 2022

  Dr Anthea Skinner is a musicologist with a lived experience of disability. Inspired by her own experiences growing up, Dr Skinner has launched the Adaptive Music Bridging Program with Melbourne Youth Orchestras to help others with disability access music education and learn a musical instrument.

  • Research

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• A powerful musical experience: University of Melbourne Orchestra to perform Mahler 2

  25 August 2022

  The University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will be returning soon to the Hamer Hall stage with Mahler’s mighty Second Symphony (The Resurrection), led by their Chief Conductor, Associate Professor Richard Davis.

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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• Adult survivors take back their power in documentary film 'Left Write Hook'

  25 August 2022

  Left Write Hook is a new documentary film focusing on a University of Melbourne-supported program helping adult survivors take back their power.

  • Victorian College of the Arts

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• The music app supporting dementia care at home

  23 August 2022

  A new app aims to train family carers of people with dementia to use music to support care and manage symptoms at home, says University of Melbourne expert.

  • Music, Arts & Screen

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• Podcast: Professor Sally Smart, “The power of artists is extraordinary”

  17 August 2022

  The Expert Hack Podcast sat down with Victorian College of the Arts alumna artist Professor Sally Smart to discuss how artists are influencing politics and social change.

  • Visual Art

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• Inside the musician: Stuart Greenbaum: Emerging from the darkness

  15 August 2022

  Professor in Composition at the Conservatorium, Stuart Greenbaum, has released 'A Trillion Miles of Darkness', a new album of soulful, evocative music featuring the clarinet.

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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• Herring Island inspires a new piano sonata

  12 August 2022

  Pianist Coady Green asked Linda Kouvaras to compose a work about a little-known location in Melbourne; he discusses the piece that eventuated.

  • News

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• New partnership brings students into the concert hall with the world’s leading musical talent 

  11 August 2022

  A new exclusive partnership with the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) will enable University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music students to have unparalleled access to a network of the finest Australian musicians, working in leading orchestras and ensembles around the world and here at home.

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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• Dr Raafat Ishak and Professor Patricia Piccinini selected to create new works for the Metro Tunnel project

  09 August 2022

  Commuters travelling through Melbourne's new underground railway stations will see new commissions by Dr Raafat Ishak, Head of Painting at the VCA and Professor Patricia Piccinini, Enterprise Professor of Visual Art at the University of Melbourne.

  • Staff stories

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• (In) Corporeal Encounters Podcast Series

  02 August 2022

  Across five episodes with artists, scholars and activists working in the fields of dance and related disciplines, these critical conversations explore possibilities for future dance(r)s through an interdisciplinary weave of voices.

  • Dance

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• Deaf storytellers share knowledge and challenge audism in What I Wish I'd Told You

  02 August 2022

  By Sarah HallThere are stories that can only be told in Auslan.Artists Chelle Destefano and Claire Bridge have created a home for some of them in What I Wish I’d Told You, an immersive show of large-scale video projections centring Deaf voices, identity, language and culture, which is now open...

  • Alumni

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• With My Self in That Moment, Chamber Made gives us a dystopian view of our lost soul in the digital age

  02 August 2022

  Senior Lecturer in Music at the Conservatorium, Miriama Young, reviews My Self in That Moment, a new hybrid performance by Chamber Made for The Conversation.

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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• Head of Theatre, Associate Professor Chris Mead discussed his latest book on ABC Radio National

  01 August 2022

  Listen to Associate Professor Chris Mead, Head of Theatre at the VCA as he discusses his new book 'Wondrous Strange: Seven Brief Thoughts on New Plays' on ABC Radio National.

  • Theatre

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• Soprano Stacey Alleaume on nerves, wardrobe malfunctions and international success

  27 July 2022

  Soprano Stacey Alleaume is a superstar of Australian opera; a regular at the Sydney Opera House who has performed in some of the artform’s best-known roles. And she’s not done yet.

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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• Epic opportunity for animation students

  27 July 2022

  Animation students are creating a short film using cutting-edge 3D technology, as part of a competition from gaming company Epic Games.

  • Film and Television

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• Diploma in Music and Bachelor of Science student Thien Pham wins $10,000 James Morrison Jazz Scholarship

  27 July 2022

  Diploma in Music student Thien Pham was announced the 33rd winner of the $10,000 James Morrison Jazz Scholarship for solo instrumentalists under 19 on 8 May. The announcement was made at the biggest school jazz event in the country, Generations in Jazz in Mount Gambier, South Australia.

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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• Victorian College of the Arts researchers recipients of ABC TOP 5 Arts Media Residency Program

  25 July 2022

  Early career researchers Amaara Raheem and Yvette Grant from the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts, have been awarded a 2022 ABC TOP 5 Arts Media Residency.

  • Partnerships

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• Director of the VCA, Professor Emma Redding appears in American Vogue

  22 July 2022

  American Vogue asked Director of the VCA, Professor Emma Redding her thoughts on the resurgence of Dance-Based fitness. Professor Redding wrote the world’s first masters degree in Dance Science, and has spent over two decades teaching and researching in the arts.

  • VCA 50

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• First Nations uni students bring Warrior documentary to UK culture showcase

  22 July 2022

  A new creative initiative between Australia and the UK will see First Nations students from the University of Melbourne showcase their culture on a global platform. Among them is Nicholas Currie, a third year Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art) student at the Victorian College of the Arts. Nicholas i...

  • Indigenous Arts and Culture

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• New leadership reimagines University Museums and Collections through First Nations lens

  22 July 2022

  Professor Brook Andrew has been announced as the inaugural Reimagining Museums and Collections Director at the University of Melbourne.

  • Indigenous Arts and Culture

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• From Melbourne to London with promiscuous/cities

  19 July 2022

  by Sarah HallFor two decades, Professor Alyson Campbell has straddled the worlds of the academy and independent theatre, while recognising a tension between the two.

  • Theatre

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• Resurfacing vital Indigenous history through historic film footage

  19 July 2022

  • Wilin 20th

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• Faculty of Fine Arts and Music alumni and staff sweep up at 39th Annual Green Room Awards

  18 July 2022

  The Faculty of Fine Arts and Music congratulates our outstanding alumni and staff who were recognised at the 39th Annual Green Room Awards.

  • Alumni

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• Goran Stolevski’s 'Of an Age' to open MIFF

  12 July 2022

  by Sarah HallAfter a decade working in relative obscurity, Australian-Macedonian writer-director and VCA grad Goran Stolevski has landed in the film industry in a big way. With thirteen feature-length screenplays in his pocket, and an uncompromising artistic vision, he has hit the ground running.

  • Film and Television

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• Lengger Lanang: Immortalising a vanishing Indonesian dance with the help of motion capture technology

  11 July 2022

  New digital technologies at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) are helping to preserve Lengger Lanang, a centuries old cross-gender dance from Central Java.

  • Dance

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• Congratulations to Leah Columbine, 2022 recipient of the MSO Snare Drum Award

  07 July 2022

  Leah Columbine is a third year Bachelor of Music (Performance) student and the 2022 recipient of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) Snare Drum Award.

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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