BBC Singers are denied a Proms farewell

BBC Singers are denied a Proms farewell

News

norman lebrecht

March 08, 2023

One of the uglier sides of yesterday’s decision to abolish the BBC Singers is the discourtesy of denying them a Proms farewell. The Singers have been a stalwart of the Proms for most of their 100-year existence and the suits probably fear that a final performance might trigger mass demonstrations of solidarity in the Royal Albert Hall. Well, we couldn’t have that, could we?

so the Singers are being disbanded a week before the Proms begin.

Here’s a letter to the 24 individual members from their acting co-directors. Rob Johnston and Jonathan Manners:
Dear all,

Rob and I are writing to you with the devastatingly sad news that we have been informed that the BBC has made the decision to close the BBC Singers, making the singers and its management team redundant. This will take place over the summer, and the group will play no part in the 2023 BBC Proms. Our last activity is likely to be in the first half of July this year, just six months before our centenary year.

Since the restructure of the BBC Orchestras and Choirs last year, Rob and I have gone to great lengths to champion the many virtues of the BBC Singers as the professional choir of the corporation. We believe that the group is at the heart of music-making in the UK and internationally, and is vital to performance and education work at all levels of choral music. The group has a huge responsibility in engaging with the future of choral music in this country, for composers, conductors, singers, collaborators, students and audiences alike.

At every stage of discussions – which were instigated at our request – we acknowledged the need to adapt our working model to fit the BBC’s future and offered numerous suggestions as to how we could keep the group working to create exciting new content.
Sadly, the BBC has decided to proceed without the BBC Singers, and will concentrate on working with its five professional orchestras, their associated amateur choirs and external professional groups. We have been told that this BBC decision has no reflection on the quality of our work, but that it is taken out of financial necessity at this time.

This news comes less than a week after the Royal Philharmonic Awards, where the BBC Singers were the only BBC ensemble to be nominated for an award. The BBC Singers were recognised for our diversity of programming and collaboration, the championing of women composers and for our education work. The BBC Singers has never been in a better position to fulfil its remit and purpose to public service broadcasting.
We wanted you to hear this terrible news directly from us, and to ask for your understanding over the coming weeks and months. Whilst we would want to be able to speak to you all individually, our immediate and primary concern must be for the incredible members of the BBC Singers and its management team as we all come to terms with this tragic news.
For us both, it continues to be a privilege to lead the BBC Singers, and we are exceptionally proud of the numerous achievements of the group. Today’s announcement is a devastating blow for us all.

Comments

  • Tony Britten says:

    Very soon it will be time to stop paying the licence fee. The BBC DG is a card carrying Tory, the Chairman is in Johnson’s corrupt inner circle and the damage that is being done by these people will not be repairable. I have recently returned from the IMZ bash at the Berlinale (International Music and Media Centre) and my friends and colleagues from around Europe and beyond simply can’t understand what the BBC is doing. It used to be the inspiration for all the other state broadcasters, now its perceived as a largely toothless irrelevance. A sad indictment.

  • Patricia Brompton says:

    On International Women’s Day it is worth remembering that the BBC Singers have an exemplary gender balance, are formidable champions of women composers, and are led by the outstanding Sophie Jeannin. Insofar as their abolition is connected with a diversity programme, the decision is utterly perverse.

  • Maria says:

    They first disbanded the very fine and very versatile BBC Northern Singers in Manchester with Stephen Wilkinson, and then have been chipping away at the BBC Singers in London for years with fewer jobs cut down down to 24 and making it a baroque/choral scholar-type sounding or 21st century music choir – a shadow of its former self. The reality is that other fine choirs available, like The Sixteen, Tenebrae and the Monterverdi Choir, to mention just three, albeit not full time.

  • Alexander Hall says:

    Shocking, shocking, shocking. And this is supposed to be a civilised country?!

  • Clem says:

    I work for the Belgian Flemish public broadcaster VRT. Like the BBC, we have been struck with budget cut after budget cut for over ten years. Like the BBC, we have been cutting in programmes and services (imagine all caps here:) because we have no choice!

    To all those complaining at home, I always say: where were you when they decided the cuts? Did you take to the streets for us? Did you protest in any way? Which letter of “b-u-d-g-e-t c-u-t-s” is it that you don’t understand?

    Public services are under seige every where. Either support them, or do without them.

    • Alexander Hall says:

      While I accept the validity of your comments and the need for more individuals to stand up and protest (remember the famous Martin Niemoller poem), it’s important to note that the official attitude of the BBC towards the succession of government cuts has been entirely supine. No pressure has been exercised on government ministers, no strong representations made by the BBC’s DG to the powers-that-be, no organised protests from within the Corporation iself. Now, why might this be? Oh yes, Tim Davie is a Conservative, Richard Sharpe was installed by a Tory PM as a “thank you” gesture for facilitating an £800,000 loan, and a large number of the nasty commie bastards and lefties that ignored “the will of the people” as BBC employees have been eased out. Look at the process of Gleichschaltung in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. We have already begun to slither down that particular slope.

      • Dougie Undersub says:

        You do see the world through a very narrow lens, Alexander. So the fact that Davie was a local Tory Party officer in Hammersmith 30 years ago apparently disqualifies him from any public office in your view. Given the latitude he allows to Tory-hating Gary Lineker’s Twitter outbursts, he doesn’t seem to have much interest in helping today’s Tory Party.
        And I must have missed your vigorous objections when Gavyn Davies became BBC DG, while a card-carrying Labour member and the husband of Gordon Brown’s fixer, Sue Nye. Or are appointments from the Left immune from criticism?

  • William Evans says:

    Aside from the decision to ‘close’ the BBC Singers, as the Corporation so callously describes the summary dismissal of each member of the ensemble, the timing of the Singers’ final performance adds to the sense of injustice and, to be frank (and as noted), clearly shows the BBC’s determination to avoid public protest, at the Proms, at all costs.

    • Hilary Davan Wetton says:

      Exactly. No last Prom, no centennial celebrations = no opportunity for the concert-going public to indicate their support. Pretty cynical, but sadly may be effective.

  • Haydn R Lee. says:

    I am grieved. Another instance of Britain’s cultural, and indeed, general, decline.
    I pray the members will all find ample professional work in the future.
    Haydn R Lee.

  • Dougie Undersub says:

    “The BBC Singers were recognised for our diversity of programming …” etc, etc, but not for the quality of their singing, apparently. Perhaps therein lies a clue to their fate.

  • Marilyn Hill Smith says:

    What sad news! The singers have been a superb part of so many BBC performances, championing music from all ages and styles with equal expertise.
    I fear the BBC will soon be unrecognisable, as all its treasured programmes and performers are prematurely offloaded.

  • TruthHurts says:

    Can Queen Elizabeth not intervene and rectify this shameless outrage? Or
    perhaps Megan what’s-her-name or some other blue blood?………….

  • Stephen Lord says:

    Well said, Jonathan – a person of great sense and sensibility. I grieve for you and the UK which seem determined to emulate our third world (USA) mode of arts.

  • Hugh says:

    The loss of the BBC Singers marks a very black day for classical music. Some years back, I had the privilege of working with this choir as an accompanist in a performance of Schoenberg’s ‘Kol Nidre’, and I have to say their musicianship was of the first rank, enabling them to tackle a highly formidable work that had not seen the light of day for many years with consummate ability and mastery. It is a shabby, inglorious ending for such a talented vocal ensemble, and their absence will seriously diminish the BBC’s standing as a leading light for classical music – all the more so, given it is allied to a 20 per cent reduction of orchestral players. A shameful bean-counting exercise, and I fear just the start of the slippery slope on this country’s path to cultural annihilation.

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