The BBC’s new strategy for classical music makes for deeply alarming reading for composers and music creators across the UK and beyond.
BBC Singers occupy a unique place in our nation’s musical life, performing new works by dozens of living composers each year.
Their closure would be an enormous and irreplaceable loss to the contemporary classical music scene. The proposed 20% reduction in the salaried workforce of the BBC’s England-based orchestras causes further concern, especially in the context of previous cuts to new music commissioning and programming across BBC television and radio. Last year, an Ivors Academy survey found 62% of Ivors Composer Awards past winners had been commissioned by the BBC or a BBC ensemble.
The cutbacks announced this week threaten not only the livelihoods of thousands of performers and composers but risk damaging the BBC’s cherished reputation as a public broadcaster of arts and culture for all.