Jimmy Barnes, Hoodoo Gurus singer-songwriter Dave Faulkner, The Church’s Steve Kilbey and multiple ARIA Award-winner Genesis Owusu have all weighed in to put pressure on ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop and the ANU Council to abandon plans to dismantle the university’s School of Music.

In an open letter, written by the newly formed School of Music Advocacy Roundtable and signed by more than 40 high-profile “supporters”, industry luminaries have called on Bishop to halt job cuts, retain performance and composition majors, and maintain one-on-one music tuition to avoid a devastating impact on students and early career musicians.

The letter argues that future ANU music graduates will not be qualified to become professional musicians under the proposed changes and that removal of one-on-one tuition will dismantle Canberra’s music pipeline and undermine national arts leadership.

Barnes said: “I’ve seen how classical training and rock and roll can come together to create magic. But that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we invest in serious music education… one of our leading universities walks away from its responsibility, it sends a clear message that we don’t value the next generation of musicians, and we can’t let this happen.”

The Advocacy Roundtable’s chair, Robyn Hendry, said: “Cutting off the pipeline of musicians… has a much broader impact than denying music students the education they need and deserve.”

“It is not too late for the ANU to pause and reconsider its plans and for the governance Council to realign with the ANU Act.”