What caused the axe to fall on the BBC Singers?

Why axe the BBC Singers? Who made this decision and what drove it? It comes after a major review of classical music provision by the BBC. Yes, we can all read the accompanying justification and we realise that the BBC needs to save money, but it is not obvious that real thought has been put into what happens when the Singers are gone. 

In a rather cruel move, I gather they were told only a few days ago that they won’t be appearing in this year’s Proms. Founded in 1924, they are just short of their centenary. What a tragedy.

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 of the proposed aims by making these partnerships? What was it the Singers were not doing that caused the axe to fall?

When Arts Council England took away the funding of the English National Opera it told the company to go to Manchester. No-one it seems had made a feasibility study. I worry that this is now the case with the decision to axe the BBC Singers. I believe the decision is all about ‘ticking boxes’ and takes no account of the value of a cherished asset.  

I asked at the beginning who made the decision. I also want to know when it was made. I note that Alan Davey left recently as head of Radio 3. I wonder if Sam Jackson, his successor, knew about this when he took on the job.

Ronald Corp OBE is a Composer and Conductor.
 www.ronaldcorp.co.uk/
@RonaldGCorp