Music
Students at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music perform solo, with accompanists and in ensembles to showcase their musicianship in these recorded performances.
Our thriving community of students, teachers, academics and researchers reflects the many dimensions of musical creativity and experience. Together, we work to sustain the vitality of music in society and to shape the future of music in Australia and across the globe.
Our home is the spectacular The Ian Potter Southbank Centre, nestled in the heart of Melbourne's Arts Precinct.
We respectfully acknowledge the people of the Boonwurrung and the Woi Wurrung, who have danced their dances, sung their songs and lived their culture on this land for tens of thousands of years.
Professor Richard Kurth, Director of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, invites you to join our musical community and to explore our exceptional Ian Potter Southbank Centre.
The Faculty was created in 2009 following the amalgamation of the University's Faculty of Music and Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts. It was renamed the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music in 2018 to reflect the primary undergraduate degree structures offered by the Faculty: the Bachelor of Music and the Bachelor of Fine Arts.
The Faculty is also home to the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, which works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to identify, recruit and support potential and practicing Indigenous Artists to study and refine their academic and artistic skills.
The first Bachelor of Music at the University of Melbourne was awarded in 1879, and the Conservatorium was founded in 1894. Dame Nellie Melba laid the foundation stone for a permanent conservatorium building on the University’s Parkville campus in 1909, and the building was opened in 1913.
The Conservatorium provides training in a comprehensive range of musical disciplines, including Music Performance, Composition, Jazz and Improvisation, Interactive Composition, Early Music, Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Music Therapy, Music Psychology and Performance Science and New Music.
Our internationally recognised teachers are committed to challenging and inspiring our students to create their own unique paths in music. To complement the knowledge and performance expertise on staff at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, our students also benefit from visiting performers and academics from around the world.
Much of the Conservatorium's teaching, research and performance takes place in, or near, the Ian Potter Southbank Centre on the University of Melbourne’s Southbank campus.
Our facilities on the University's Parkville campus, including Melba Hall, are also used for teaching, research and performances.
Our nine-story facility sets a new standard for music training institutions worldwide. Our public performance spaces, rehearsal rooms, and state-of-the-art technology allows us to train, perform, and conduct research in new and exciting ways. We connect directly with professional partner organisations in the precinct, such as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, with whom we run a Master of Music (Orchestral Performance) - the first course of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.
The University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, led by world-renowned conductor Associate Professor Richard Davis and featuring our very best student classical musicians, is the premier large performance ensemble at the University.
The University of Melbourne Wind Symphony, directed by international conductor, Associate Professor Nicholas Enrico Williams features the most talented wind, brass and percussion students in the University.