We Can Get Together national music symposium
On 12 November the City of Melbourne will host the first Australian symposium about the growing phenomenon of music cities.
Aptly titled “We Can Get Together ”, after a hit single from Australian rock band, Flowers (later known as Icehouse) the symposium is co-sponsored by Monash University and RMIT University and will take place at the Melbourne Town Hall.
Senior lecturer in journalism, Dr Andrea Jean Baker from the School of Media, Film and Journalism (MFJ) has been the academic representative on the City of Melbourne’s music committee since July 2013 and contributed to the council’s current music strategy (2014-2017), from which this symposium evolved.
Dr Baker will be chairing a workshop at the symposium titled “Postcard perfect: music branding and connectivity in the global city”.
In March 2014 Dr Baker hosted a panel of experts’ discussion about Global Music Cities at the renowned music conference, South by South West in Austin (Texas) and is currently completing her second book, The Life, Death and Rejuvenation of the Great Music City, which is arguably one of the first in-depth studies of the global music city scene.
Associate Professor in Media and Communications, Shane Homan from MFJ who co-wrote a report which informed the City of Melbourne’s Music Strategy in 2010, has also been involved in the planning of the symposium.
The symposium, MC’ed by Myf Warhurst (ABC digital radio Double J, ABCTV’s Spicks and Specks) will bring together key players from the government and music industry in a talk fest about growth and sustainability of music cities, and in particular, Melbourne, which is touted as the Music Capital of Australia.
Academic staff from Monash’s Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music will attend the symposium, while local musician from SBS TV’s Rockwiz band, James Black, who also teaches at the school, will give the local keynote address.
There will be two international keynotes. Amy Terrill, Vice President of Public Affairs at Music Canada based in Toronto will talk about her co-authored 2015 industry report, The Mastering of a Music City. Professor Robert Kronenburg, Roscoe Chair of Architecture at the University of Liverpool in the UK, will discuss his research, designing and writing about music performance spaces.
“We Can Get Together will move beyond the nationally competitive rhetoric of which Australian city has the best music scene. It will be a mature discussion exploring the challenges faced by music cities in the twenty-first century”, Dr Baker said.