Dr Peter Tregear, executive director of the Academy of Performing Arts at Monash University, is behind the university’s academic and public outreach performance programs in music, theatre and performance, and manages Monash’s large-scale performance venues.

The announcement  came as  a surprise to staff at the school, who said they were unaware of any of the “global  search” conducted by the university and had only learnt by email today.

Several had not heard of Dr Peter Tregear, but others had discovered on Facebook that he had a reputation as “absolutely top-notch”. He takes up his appointment in mid-August.

Dr Tregear is a Cambridge graduate and former lecturer in music at Fitzwilliam and Churchill Colleges at that university. He is  the author of a centenary history of the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne and  an expert on the composer Ernst Krenek. He  was awarded the Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Prize.

On air today, Dr Tregear said his response to friends who told him he was “mad” to consider the ANU had been that the passion engendered among students by the School of Music crisis showed how much they cared.

Meantime, resignations and retirements are proceeding apace at the school, with the latest confirmed departures being flautist Virginia Taylor, head of woodwind and clarinettist Alan Vivian.