|
marbleflugel
|
 |
« Reply #45 on: 21:25:53, 29-01-2008 » |
|
I also read that Orchestras Live (formerly eastern orchestral board) has increased funding, which -although it does some good stuff strategically-begs the question of how and why its performance is rated more than smaller entities. They may I suppose have some new gambits up their sleeve, but
one of them clearly doesnt involve cls et al.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
|
|
|
|
martle
|
|
« Reply #46 on: 09:24:44, 30-01-2008 » |
|
I'm pretty sure that BMIC's funding from the Arts Council has been confirmed as continuing. They're certainly not on any of the lists of those whose funding has been cut, as LMC and COMA are.
Hi kretschmar. bmic (and spnm and Sonic Arts Network and Contemporary Music Network) will all cease to exist as such this year. They will form a new 'merged' organisation. ACE would only guarantee continued funding for these organisations on this basis. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Green. Always green.
|
|
|
|
George Garnett
|
|
« Reply #47 on: 09:38:42, 30-01-2008 » |
|
... being a simple soul, I don't quite understand what there is against just asking LMC itself whether they would be prepared to say what ACE's 'ongoing concerns' are. It is in their gift to make this information available if they want to. I've <gulp> put my clumsy boots on and done so. I hope that doesn't cut across what others are doing but I can't see any downside myself. I haven't, incidentally, had any reply at all to my letter to LMC asking them about this. Fair enough I suppose: they're not obliged to respond to letters, however supportive, from weird strangers. But it doesn't make it any easier to know how to lobby on their behalf without this information. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Reiner Torheit
|
|
« Reply #48 on: 10:28:34, 30-01-2008 » |
|
The theatre world - largely by pulling together, and wheeling out "big guns" like Nick Hytner, Sam West and Caroline Quentin, to defend small venues and projects - has managed to stay the execution of many of ACE's planned cuts. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/news/arts-council-gives-11thhour-reprieve-over-funding-cuts-774858.htmlSir Christopher "Failing" Frayling has been pushed into a very uncomfortable corner by a torrent of highly visible and audible protest he cannot have predicted. ACE's policy on cuts in theatre has been largely the same as in music - targetting new work, experimental work, and venues and groups in low-population areas far from where the West End critics might cause a rumpus. This jackal-like policy of picking-off those most easily isolated from the pack has been foiled - at least for the present - by a united front from those who stood in no danger from the cuts, on behalf of their threatened colleagues. Sir Christopher is said to have been particularly affronted to have his "policy" called "bollocks" by Nicholas Hytner. I must say I'm saddened and disturbed that the music sector's response has been "I'm all right Jack, pull the ladder up". Where were the musical Hytners and Wests? Bought-off, it seems, with the same offer to boost the funding of top-end music-making with twenty pieces of silver that their theatre colleagues found the courage to decline. Have we heard Rattle or Elder or Norrington so much as hiccup over the axing of the London Mozart Players (whose touring commitments take them to locations where there's no other orchestral music)? Not even Andrew Parrott, the LMP's recent Music Director, seems to have said a word on the subject  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
|
|
|
|
perfect wagnerite
|
|
« Reply #49 on: 11:55:49, 30-01-2008 » |
|
I must say I'm saddened and disturbed that the music sector's response has been "I'm all right Jack, pull the ladder up". Where were the musical Hytners and Wests? Bought-off, it seems, with the same offer to boost the funding of top-end music-making with twenty pieces of silver that their theatre colleagues found the courage to decline. Have we heard Rattle or Elder or Norrington so much as hiccup over the axing of the London Mozart Players (whose touring commitments take them to locations where there's no other orchestral music)? Not even Andrew Parrott, the LMP's recent Music Director, seems to have said a word on the subject Quite so. The lack of solidarity was demonstrated by an item on this morning's BBC Breakfast on the threat to brass band funding, where the repeated mantra was that for every pound brass bands get from ACE, opera gets £11; gritty northerners having the bread taken out of their mouths by pampered metropolitan sybarites, as it were. Nobody had the wit to make the more general point about how funding was being cut across the board (but then BBC journalists rarely venture beyond tired cliche these days, and nobody has been more complicit than the BBC in the Great Olympics Idiocy, for which these cuts are part of the down-payment). |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
|
|
|
|
George Garnett
|
|
« Reply #50 on: 12:27:44, 30-01-2008 » |
|
Nobody had the wit to make the more general point about how funding was being cut across the board (but then BBC journalists rarely venture beyond tired cliche these days, and nobody has been more complicit than the BBC in the Great Olympics Idiocy, for which these cuts are part of the down-payment).
Well, up to a point, pw. The GOI doesn't turn me on personally either but the current Arts Council England "restructuring of the grants portfolio" (sic) isn't connected with the Olympics. The Arts Council vote from the Government has actually increased slightly rather than decreased. Arts Council England have got themselves into this shambles all by themselves. I'm afraid I point the finger of blame entirely there on this one. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 12:50:11, 30-01-2008 by George Garnett »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Ian Pace
|
|
« Reply #51 on: 13:44:25, 30-01-2008 » |
|
I must say I'm saddened and disturbed that the music sector's response has been "I'm all right Jack, pull the ladder up". Where were the musical Hytners and Wests? Bought-off, it seems, with the same offer to boost the funding of top-end music-making with twenty pieces of silver that their theatre colleagues found the courage to decline. Have we heard Rattle or Elder or Norrington so much as hiccup over the axing of the London Mozart Players (whose touring commitments take them to locations where there's no other orchestral music)? Not even Andrew Parrott, the LMP's recent Music Director, seems to have said a word on the subject As I have been known to opine on countless occasions, the fact that few in the music world are prepared to make the case publicly for public subsidy of such work (whether that of their own or others) gives the subsidy-slashers and populist dumbers-down a relatively clear ride, unencumbered by any concrete opposition. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
|
|
|
|
marbleflugel
|
|
« Reply #52 on: 20:21:30, 30-01-2008 » |
|
I'm wondering what the MU is prepared to do about this. When the BBC sought to axe even more orchstreal forces than it `actually did the strike action elicited public empathy, ie made them realise that they cared semi-consciously and brought it to the forefront.
Frayling surprises me if he's a willing partcipant in this vandalism-or`does something happen to the formerly creative practicioner who becomes a bureaucrat in the present regime?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
|
|
|
|
...trj...
|
|
« Reply #53 on: 10:29:32, 31-01-2008 » |
|
Paraphrasing an earlier question of Ian's - does anyone know what musical organisations, ensembles, etc are affected by the cuts (beyond the LMC)? Even if they were willing, what would the likes of Simon Rattle and Mark Elder protest about?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Reiner Torheit
|
|
« Reply #54 on: 10:40:55, 31-01-2008 » |
|
Paraphrasing an earlier question of Ian's - does anyone know what musical organisations, ensembles, etc are affected by the cuts (beyond the LMC)? Even if they were willing, what would the likes of Simon Rattle and Mark Elder protest about?
Well, I've already mentioned the London Mozart Players - whose grant has been axed entirely, with no warning. In fact the LMP's outreach and touring work has previously been listed by ACE as an example of "good practice", and they reach locations and communities who have no live orchestral music otherwise. They also have an excellent program of interactive work with audiences, hands-on workshops that bring listeners into direct contact with players and composers, promoting a broader and deeper understanding of the music they perform on stage. (Moreover, they don't "only play Mozart"). Although LMP have commercial sponsors too, it's the regional touring and outreach work that will be hit most directly by ACE's cannonball - it's only the most far-sighted of sponsors who are ready to fund something at which there won't be a glittery reception and a chance to swank around. Sponsors for such work do exist (and I've worked with them) - but it's not cheap to do. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
|
|
|
|
...trj...
|
|
« Reply #55 on: 10:46:02, 31-01-2008 » |
|
Oops - sorry, Reiner, I don't know why that didn't register first time round  Update: After a little Googling, we can add the Early Music Network and Birmingham Opera to the list. And in case he feels maligned, Roger Norrington has (with others) voiced some protest. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 10:58:20, 31-01-2008 by ...trj... »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
George Garnett
|
|
« Reply #56 on: 10:50:26, 31-01-2008 » |
|
Yesterday's Independent article did say that the London Mozart Players cut was 'thought to be' one of the decisions that was now being reviewed. But I suppose a lot depends on who it was that 'thought' it.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Ian Pace
|
|
« Reply #57 on: 12:00:24, 31-01-2008 » |
|
In fact the LMP's outreach and touring work has previously been listed by ACE as an example of "good practice", and they reach locations and communities who have no live orchestral music otherwise. They also have an excellent program of interactive work with audiences, hands-on workshops that bring listeners into direct contact with players and composers, promoting a broader and deeper understanding of the music they perform on stage. (Moreover, they don't "only play Mozart"). Hmmmm - I worry that in general arts funding policy tends to be based more upon these sorts of factors than the (surely most important) issue of what sort of work is being produced - is it of the best quality, innovative, etc.? Or is art merely a subsection of some Community Outreach programme? |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
|
|
|
|
Ron Dough
|
|
« Reply #58 on: 12:42:09, 31-01-2008 » |
|
I'm trying hard to find a mention of it without any success, but I'm sure that I heard some reference on the radio news yesterday to a minister complaining that the those in the business sector weren't contributing enough to the Arts (which sounds suspiciously like an early attempt to cover tracks/shift the blame). Does this ring bells with anybody else?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Reiner Torheit
|
|
« Reply #59 on: 13:20:46, 31-01-2008 » |
|
Hmmmm - I worry that in general arts funding policy tends to be based more upon these sorts of factors than the (surely most important) issue of what sort of work is being produced - is it of the best quality, innovative, etc.? Or is art merely a subsection of some Community Outreach programme?
I don't want to clash with you on this topic, Ian - especially when I have sent out flares for us to "pull together" on the matter of cuts. The outreach work done by LMP (and almost every other responsible ensemble and orchestra these days) works in tandem with their concert performances. Is the Brahms Clarinet Quintet any lesser work if it's played in a Care Centre, the Wigmore Hall, a Secondary School or a Centre For Young Offenders? Or are we only after the stuffed shirts and the music critics? Or any other work you like to mention? You superimpose your own subjective judgements here without any basis for doing so. Who says that "the most important issue" is the concert platform? If you've turned 4-5 kids on to classical music, and destroyed the bow-tie-stuffed-shirt-poncey-crap barrier for them, couldn't that also be of importance? |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
|
|
|
|
