Australian music community launches The Music Trust

A collective made up of musicians, academics, association heads, radio broadcasters, governmental advisers and festival promoters this week launched The Music Trust. Dr. Richard Letts AM, its Sydney-based Director and founder told The Music Network that the Trust’s 16-strong advisory committee will regularly discuss issues which emerged in sectors including jazz, classical, rock, Indigenous and country.

Among its initial activities are:

* Research into music sector statistics and other data.

* The annual Freedman Music Fellowships for a classical instrumentalist and a jazz musician.

* A concert series to lift the profile of musicians.

* Development of the Music In Australia Knowledge Base website which attempts to paint a picture of the country’s music industry.

* A concerted effort for artists and music executives to nominate their peers to have their work recognised in honours as the Order of Australia. “To be considered, people in the music community have to be nominated, and there is currently a low rate of nominations from the music community,” says Letts, the one-time Music Council of Australia CEO who was awarded an Order of Australia in 1996.

* The Full Deal, an advocacy program for primary school music education, as well as a national award for research demonstrating the benefits of a music education. Letts points out, “It is appalling how little attention is given to providing school music education to get children involved in music at a young age. 70% to 80% of schools lack this, unless parents are prepared to pay for it.”

The advisory committee includes musicians such as William Barton, Genevieve Lacey and Alex Masso, as well as Woodford Folk Festival founder Bill Hauritz, and Roland Peelman of the Canberra International Music Festival.