Building Highlight - School of Music / Llewellyn Hall

Building Australia's National University: 75 Years of the Australian National University

The idea for a school or conservatorium of music for Canberra can be traced back to the foundation years of the city. A Committee for Cultural Facilities was formed, with its priorities being to establish a large theatre, concert hall, art gallery, music school and art school. This program remained the blueprint for arts development in Canberra, with all these facilities established over the following 25 years. 

In 1963 the Canberra School of Music found premises in the former Mothercraft Centre in Griffith. Under its Director Ernest Llewellyn, an internationally acclaimed violinist, the School was officially opened on 20 September 1965.  

The School began to offer full-time diplomas in 1970, and with over 650 students, the School was outgrowing its space. Llewellyn envisaged the School situated in Canberra’s centre and “housed in a building complex unique in Australia, specially designed for complete training in the performing arts from which will emerge exponents to complete professional standard” (Godden Mackay Loggan Heritage Consultants 2012). A new permanent site was chosen, on what had been the Old Canberra High School Oval, between the city and the ANU.   

The building was the work of well-known architects Darryl Jackson and Evan Walker, who were commissioned by the National Capital Development Commission to produce a design in the 1970s. The building, a striking example of late twentieth century Brutalist style, was completed in 1976 and officially opened on 24 September 1976.  

When the building was constructed, it was technically on the city boundary of the ANU Arts Precinct, and as such, it was not actually part of the ANU Campus.  

From the late 1980s there were discussions about amalgamation of the School with either the ANU or Canberra College of Advanced Education (later the University of Canberra). During this process, the Canberra Institute of the Arts was formally established as an autonomous statutory authority in 1988. In 1992 the CITA formally amalgamated with the ANU, becoming the Institute of the Arts and comprising the Schools of Music and Art and the Australian Centre for Arts and Technology. 

 

References

ANU College of Social Sciences Marketing & Communications 2020, History of the School of Music,

 

Interior of Llewellyn Hall, 4 April 1991 (ANUA226-241). Photographer: Branko Ivanovic, ANU Photographic Services.

Interior of Llewellyn Hall, 4 April 1991 (ANUA226-241). Photographer: Branko Ivanovic, ANU Photographic Services.

ANU School of Music, 2016. Photograph courtesy of ANU Strategic Communications & Public Affairs.

ANU School of Music, 2016. Photograph courtesy of ANU Strategic Communications & Public Affairs.

Recording Studio in the School of Music, 2018. Photograph courtesy of the College of Arts & Social Sciences Marketing & Communications.

Recording Studio in the School of Music, 2018. Photograph courtesy of the College of Arts & Social Sciences Marketing & Communications.

Construction of Llewellyn Hall, undated. Photograph courtesy of Llewellyn Hall ANU.

Construction of Llewellyn Hall, undated. Photograph courtesy of Llewellyn Hall ANU.

Pipe organ at Llewellyn Hall, undated (ANUA226-243). Photographer: ANU Photographic Services.

Pipe organ at Llewellyn Hall, undated (ANUA226-243). Photographer: ANU Photographic Services.

School of Music students, undated (ANUA226-55). Photographer: Bob Cooper, ANU Photographic Services.

School of Music students, undated (ANUA226-55). Photographer: Bob Cooper, ANU Photographic Services.