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Proms set for record year – Tube strikes permitting
7 September 2010, Kimon Daltas
On the evening of a rapturously received concert by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, Proms director Roger Wright announced that the 2010 season was on track to break the 300,000 audience-attendance mark for the first time in the festival’s history. Although final figures will not be available until after the Last Night on Saturday 11 September, and despite concerns that industrial action on the London Underground my impact numbers in the final week, Mr Wright appeared confident that last year’s total of 297,500 would be broken by some margin.
The record for most concerts sold out was also expected to be matched, with the Berlin Philharmonic’s concerts on 3 and 4 September marking the 39th and 40th full houses of the season. Mr Wright praised Proms concertgoers, saying that ‘what this audience does night after night is want to be taken further, and that’s what I think is a pleasure to work with they do not just want to be given something they already know’.
‘You would hope that you could get over 5,000 people to come to a wonderful concert like this evening [Beethoven 4, Mahler 1], but we’ve also sold out concerts with new music by James Dillon, by Bent Sørensen, by Mark-Anthony Turnage, and unfamiliar old work by Parry.’
Mr Wright looked back to what he considered the founding principles of the Proms: ‘This year we’ve taken a particular moment to celebrate Henry Wood, the founder of the Proms,’ said Mr Wright, ‘this evening [3 September] for instance, with Mahler’s first symphony, premiered like so many of Mahler’s pieces by Sir Henry in the UK.
‘Wood was an extraordinary figure, and his and Robert Newman’s vision for the Proms absolutely remains true to this day – that notion of liking accessibility and quality. And since the BBC took it over in 1927, that message has spread wider and wider, because of radio, because of television, and has been able to get a global audience.’
Mr Wright went on to stress the importance of viewing the Proms as part of the BBC, and by no means a self-sufficient entity: ‘It is only possible to deliver the Proms in the way that we do because we have our broadcasting colleagues.
‘We have now got almost 30 of the Proms on television; that’s treble the amount of ten years ago, so in terms of the interest and commitment of our colleagues in tv, there has been a huge step forward in just the matter of a decade.’ Mr Wright also emphasised the contribution of the BBC performing groups, ‘that make it possible to deliver a Proms season of this size and scale’.
He reminded assembled journalists that the BBC ‘spends £28m a year sustaining 5 full-time orchestras and the only full-time professional choir in the country’ and that in fact ‘one in 50 people that work for the BBC is a performing musician’.
Cuts will damage Northern Ireland’s arts sector for ‘decades’
6 September 2010, Michael Quinn
Northern Ireland’s arts sector is facing ‘widespread and unpalatable’ funding decisions that will lead to job losses and the possible closure of companies and facilities, Deborah Brown, finance director of the region’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, has warned.
Ms Brown told a recent meeting of the legislative Assembly that DCAL was planning for a reduction of more than 17% in its spending plans across the four-year period to 2015. If implemented, the cuts will see the department’s budget slashed from its current allocation of £109m to less than £92m by 2014/15 despite Northern Ireland having the lowest per capita spend on the arts in the UK and Ireland.
With public spending in the region expected to fall by £2bn over the term of the current government, the planned cuts at DCAL represent the largest reduction in funds for any of Northern Ireland’s government departments. As a result, Ms Brown said, closures of museums and libraries were to be expected, with the ‘very significant impact’ of the cuts on the arts sector likely to lead to job losses.
Noreen McKinney, director of arts development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which itself is facing a cut in its budget of 18%, warned that the jobs of up to 100 arts workers were at risk. ‘There is no doubt that we will be unable to continue to sustain the number of arts organisations that we currently do, and that will inevitably lead to job losses. Regrettably, that will have a hugely disproportionate affect on the arts in Northern Ireland and it will take us decades possibly to recover from that.’ The region’s arts sector seems likely to find little support from current arts minister, Democratic Unionist Nelson McCausland, whose department has issued more press releases during his 14-month tenure about the restocking of government-owned waters with fish than about music-related organisations or events. More than half of the 96 press releases issued have been sports-related.
It is believed that Mr McCausland has signalled his intention to protect the World Police and Fire Games, which are due to be staged in Derry in 2013, a region-wide IT project for libraries, and, despite it being four years behind its scheduled launch, criticised as misguided and flawed, and seen as divisive in some quarters, the £12m Ulster-Scots Academy.
ISM warns on Ryanair restrictions
26 August 2010
The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) is warning anyone intending to travel with a small instrument to check very carefully before travelling with Ryanair, and to ensure their instruments will be accepted as hand luggage before booking any flights.
The warning comes in the wake of several reported cases this summer of musicians being targeted by airline staff. In one instance, 12-year-old music student Francesca Rijks, who studies at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, was turned away with her violin at the boarding gate of a Ryanair flight returning to the UK from Germany.
Her parents were told the violin was not allowed as hand luggage, and were given an ultimatum to either put the violin in the baggage hold of the plane, which would cause irreparable damage to the instrument, or to purchase an additional seat at a cost of 230 euros. This was despite the fact they had received confirmation from the Ryanair customer service department (prior to purchasing any tickets) that the instrument would be accepted. They had also checked in without problems.
Francesca’s father Harmen Rijks said: ‘This was an absolute disgrace! Their policy appears to discriminate against violinists, the vast majority of whom simply can't afford to purchase an additional seat.’
The ISM’s head of legal services David Abrahams said: ‘We are deeply concerned about the recent cases involving musicians travelling on flights with their instruments.’
‘The idea that musicians should be forced to purchase an additional seat on board an aircraft because they are carrying an instrument that can be stored safely in the overhead lockers is unfair, discriminatory and irrational. These airlines are punishing musicians for being musicians.’
In addition, the ISM has advised its members to take with them a letter, signed by ISM chief executive Deborah Annetts, confirming that they are music professionals.
LSO chief reaches for the sky
26 August 2010
A view from Mount Snowdon
The London Symphony Orchestra’s managing director Kathryn McDowell is taking 24 hours off from running the orchestra to take part in the Three Peaks Challenge in aid of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2010, Pitch Perfect, on 17 September.
The boss will be tackling the three highest peaks, respectively, in England, Wales and Scotland - Scafell Pike (978m); Mount Snowdon (1085m); and Ben Nevis (1344m) – just a week before the orchestra’s 2010/11 season kicks off at its Barbican home.
McDowell is joined for the daunting challenge by a climbing team of seven, made up of staff from the Lord Mayor’s Appeal team, London Symphony Orchestra and the Cricket Foundation.
They hope to raise £8,000 for Pitch Perfect and they can be sponsored at http://www.justgiving.com/LMA3PeaksTeam
The Lord Mayor of London, Nick Anstee, has named The Cricket Foundation’s StreetChance initiative and the London Symphony Orchestra’s Discovery programme On Track as the principal beneficiaries of his appeal in 2010.
WNO chief steps down
25 August 2010
John Fisher: 'It has been a privilege'
Welsh National Opera's chief executive and artistic director John Fisher is to step down next summer after five years in charge of the company. He rejoined WNO in 2006 from the New York Metropolitan Opera after a lifetime in opera which began at WNO.
He said: 'It has been a privilege to lead WNO over the last five years, and I am very proud of what we have been able to achieve. It is a wonderful company that is a great asset for Wales and the world of opera. In the next few years WNO will face very significant challenges, but I am confident that when I leave next summer the company will be in the hands of a very strong and accomplished team.'
Company chairman Geraint Talfan Davies said: 'Over the last five years John has made an enormous contribution to the development of the company through raising its musical and vocal standards to the highest level, and attracting to WNO the very best talent. Many fine productions culminated in a truly outstanding Die Meistersinger last summer that will always have an honoured place in the company’s history. We are hugely grateful to him for all that he has achieved.
'We now look forward to those productions that he will oversee during the remainder of his time with us. The finest tribute that we can pay John is to do everything we can in the challenging climate ahead to sustain the standards that he has set.'
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