Breaking from the advertised program of Mozart sonatas, Geoffrey Lancaster said: “Evil is rampant at the ANU… the ANU have lied to us, they have betrayed us,” adding that this it had gone unchecked and uncriticised.
And he named names, urging those present to “hold up” the names of ANU vice-chancellor Ian Young, Marnie “whatshername” [deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Prof Marnie Hughes-Warrington], dean of the College of Arts & Social Sciences Toni Makkai; head of the School of Music Adrian Walter and church music expert Jonathan Powles, whom he described as “very much the architect of this [the proposed new music program] course”.
He also urged people to adopt a magnanimous attitude. “Let us hope they find a point of repentance,” he said.
Dr Lancaster’s very public remarks were greeted with a standing ovation from an audience of Mozart-lovers gathered to hear him join fellow School of Music staffer, Alan Hicks, at the fortepiano in the Turkish Embassy’s Lalezar Hall.
A professor at the Royal College of Music in London and recipient of a Keating Fellowship before joining the School of Music, Dr Lancaster said he was a straightforward person who wanted to say it as he saw it.
After his speech, he sat down to perform a “surprise” work, a “lament for the School of Music”.
His program notes were already feisty enough, Dr Lancaster charging that Western music was dominated by the idea that to be deep, it had to be tragic, whereas Mozart was loved just because of his pleasing melodies and his fondness for major keys.
Events on the Canberra music scene seemed to demand a minor key.
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