Page 97 - RPS Awards 2023 Coverage Book

Uniquely equipped
The reasons given for the decision include reaching a wider audience and an investment in
music education. The former suggests that it isn’t recognised how versatile the BBC Singers
are.

I wondered if it meant that choirs who sing in different genres could be embraced in the
future, but surely this is all about ‘classical’ music making. What the decision doesn’t
acknowledge is that the BBC Singers are uniquely equipped to perform anything thrown at
them including the most challenging contemporary music.

What will happen to the BBC’s commissioning policy? Is this another sign of dumbing down? Of
course, there are excellent choirs up and down the country, but they will have their own
agendas and specialities and possibly less than flexible diaries.

Do singers have to go abroad to make a career?
As for music education, it will be interesting to see what this really means. Music education in
schools is at an all-time low. What does the axing of the BBC Singers say to youngsters who
might aspire to go into the profession or young singers at our conservatories?

The message from some professional singers is out there already - that it might be best to go
abroad to make a career. Another declared aim is to invest in ‘training initiatives’ and
‘creating extraordinary experiences’. I wonder what the latter means.

I worry that words can be used to impress but, in reality, mean very little. Another aspiration
is to create ‘agile ensembles’. Did the review not look into how musically agile the BBC Singers
as a group are and can be?

The envy of the world
I joined BBC Radio 3 as a music librarian in 1973 and became librarian to the BBC Singers. I
conducted them too, when I was still at the BBC and after I had left. I am acutely aware of the
skill and expertise of the Singers and have huge admiration for their work.

Over the years their endeavours in outreach have helped build a choral landscape which is rich
and the envy of the world. The BBC Singers are a jewel in the crown. Among the singers who
have gone on to be star performers are Peter Pears and more recently Brindley Sherratt and
Sarah Connolly. Is all this legacy, built over nearly a century, to be thrown away?

Axing the BBC Singers has caused outrage in the music profession and signatories to open
letters and campaigns include Sakari Oramo, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
and conductors Ryan Bancroft, Dalia Staveska and Ryan Wigglesworth who all have BBC
appointments.

The BBC orchestras are also suffering a 20% reduction, but all this will mean is that players will
be re-engaged as ‘extras’ at greater cost. On top of this, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC
Concert Orchestra will be jointly managed, and the latter has no home.

Ticking boxes
Only a few days earlier the Royal Philharmonic Society recognised the BBC Singers for ‘setting
new standards in choral music, refreshing their scope through exciting partnerships’. Did the
review of classical music not look into the working of the group and see that they fulfilled one