Leader of the band: James Morrison's school is already drawing students from Sydney. Photo: Supplied
James Morrison opens Academy of Music in Mount Gambier
- Australia has a habit of drawing people away from its big cities to immerse themselves in music. Country fans pack into Tamworth at the height of summer; blues and roots lovers dig into Byron Bay at Easter; and jazz aficionados descend on Wangaratta for a few days every spring.
- Now another regional city is being transformed, but this time it will buzz all year round as the next generation of jazz flocks to Mount Gambier to study at the new James Morrison Academy of Music.
- South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill officially opened the academy on March 3 after the SA government pumped $500,000 into its establishment.
- Morrison chose the town, about four and a half hours drive from Adelaide and Melbourne, because he wanted to cocoon the students in their passion.
- "In a big city there are a lot of distractions," he says. "When they have to move somewhere, suddenly they don't know anyone, so all the people they know are in the course, and when they finish their studies for the day and they go home, they go to the student accommodation, so the conversation around the dinner table is about the course.
- "It's like going to band camp. Every kid knows that when you go to band camp the band gets better in one week as much as it would in six months back at school, and it's that kind of crucible effect."
- Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/james-morrison-opens-academy-of-music-in-mount-gambier-20150304-13pnel.html#ixzz3U4nYJnCX
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