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.
The closure of BBC Singers just one year shy of its 100th anniversary means that 20 full-time equivalent musicians and administrators will lose their jobs. Webb stressed that this does not mean a diminution of the BBC’s commitment to choral music old and new. The organisation will instead invest in a wider pool of choral groups from across the UK, he said. He added that a new nationwide choral development programme was to be established when the BBC’s new music studios in East Bank are operational in East London.
Further changes will see the closure of a senior management post – the Symphony and the Concert Orchestras are to share a single manager who, Webb promised, will run both while honouring their distinct and very separate identities.
This is not a decision about quality, he said. “We had to ask how do we best invest the resources we have in a way that delivers for our audience. We had to address the level of funding we have and what we can deliver with that funding. These changes will give us a sustainable financial model for our orchestras so we can invest in their long-term future.”
The savings, he said, will allow the organisation to double its investment in music education and training, create a single digital home for its five national orchestras, and, ultimately, create agile ensembles that can work flexibly and creatively with more musicians and broadcasting from more venues across the UK.
Jo Laverty of the Musicians’ Union said: “The BBC Orchestras and Singers ensure that the BBC remains one of the most significant players in the classical music industry. They also make a crucial contribution in meeting the public purposes of the BBC’s royal charter by providing education and learning, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence … The MU does not think that these proposals are the answer to the BBC’s need to find savings. [Our] key focus will be on working with the BBC to avoid any loss of jobs and challenging them to find alternative solutions.”
BBC Singers, fellow musicians and music lovers expressed their shock and outrage on Twitter.
Composer and regular conductor of the group Paul Spicer wrote: “The BBC Singers is one of the UK’s proudest and finest choral ensembles. It is simply beyond imagination that they are to be axed.”
“Wherever in the world I work with non-professional choirs, they ALWAYS mention the @BBCSingers and how much they look up to them as a professional ensemble. The BBC are underestimating the international prestige and respect their ensembles bring them,” said conductor Leo Hussain.
The BBC Singers have long been a mainstay of each BBC Proms season, singing music ranging from Hildegard of Bingen to Pet Shop Boys, and have performed more than 100 new works over their 99-year history, including music by Benjamin Britten, Pierre Boulez, John Tavener, Thea Musgrave and Judith Weir.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, said: “This is the first major review of classical music at the BBC in a generation. This new strategy is bold, ambitious, and good for the sector and for audiences who love classical music.”
These have been difficult decisions, stressed Webb, but, “they are the right ones at this time”, made “so we can serve our audience in the best way in the future.”
