The Victorian government has finally committed to keeping the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne.

The future of the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne has been assured thanks to a new funding commitment from the Victorian Government. The elite music school has been based at the South Melbourne Town Hall for the last 20 years and has boasted graduates across Australia’s symphony orchestras.

The school’s 20-year lease with the City of Port Phillip is set to expire in 2017 and an increase in costs under the new lease agreement – many of which had been previously covered under an arrangement with the Victorian Government – had led the institution to investigate alternate options in Melbourne and interstate. Plans to extent ANAM’s lease had also met resistance from locals who objected to the music school’s presence in the community.

A report in the Port Phillip Leader in February had the school seeking a commitment of $386,000 per year from the Victorian government to keep them in Melbourne. Now, after months of uncertainty, the government has stepped in with a funding commitment of $1 million over six years, a marked increase on their previous...