Looks like curtains for Orchestra as Ulster wakes up to 10% budget cut
mainThe Belfast Telegraph reports today that ministers are having to trim £850 million from their departments by next week.
The Ulster Orchestra, facing insolvency within a month, may have run out of willing saviours.
If the orch survives, insiders say, it will be at most a chamber ensemble.
This is a genuine tragedy. An ensemble that has been a beacon of quality and civilised values through all the troubles in the Province may close for lack of funds equivalent to one new London Bus. Where is the political leadership here? When Welsh National Opera was in trouble, David Mellor found the money to save it; is there no one in the political or commercial elite of Ulster who can see the damage this will do to the quality of life in Belfast – and beyond?