Arts Council fudges its orchestras

Arts Council fudges its orchestras

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norman lebrecht

March 30, 2011

The Arts Council announced today that it was applying the cuts strategically – ‘no equal cuts for all’.

And then it promptly did the opposite with the nation’s orchestras.

ACE has refused to judge orchestral performance, giving the same 11-15 percent treatment to all symphony orchestras across the board, regardless of merit or recent progress. One band, Bournemouth, perhaps the least deserving of the regionals, gets a small increase – entirely for regional reasons.
Everyone gets prizes is the slogan.
Apparently, the ACE is talking about talking about orchestras – another four-year review is being mooted within the organisation. They’ve been talking about this since 1963.
Strikes me as a terrible dereliction of ACE responsibility.
Some small ensembles – the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and Aurora – were included only in the final reckoning, I hear, having been ruled out beforehand.

Comments

  • Zena says:

    Having an awful sense of ‘vuja de’ … the feeling I’ve seen this before

  • Derek Warby says:

    ACE cannot judge what they don’t understand! Philistines!

  • Des says:

    Fudge seems to be the policy of government for everything in 2023. I used to have a finger of fudge at Primary school in the olden days.

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