BBC Singers to close in corporation’s ‘major review of classical music’

The BBC Singers at the Barbican in 2019, part of the BBC’s Total Immersion day focusing on composer Detlev Glanert. Photograph: Mark Allan

The BBC has announced the closure of the BBC Singers, one of its six salaried performing groups and the UK’s only full-time professional chamber choir.

Simon Webb, the organisation’s head of orchestras and choirs, also revealed that a 20% reduction in salaried posts of the three English orchestras (the London-based BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras, and Manchester’s Philharmonic) is being sought through a voluntary redundancy scheme. “We are looking to reset our relationship between salaried and freelance musicians,” he said.