Berlin Phil comes out for Northern Ballet
OrchestrasHearing that the English company is now dancing to tape recordings, the Berliners have made their views known.
Member of the Northern Ballet Orchestra lose their contracts next week.
Another great achievement for Arts Cancel England (ACE).
Berliner Philharmoniker: Keep Northern Ballet LIVE!
Great to see this solidarity, but will it have any effect? Sadly, I doubt it. The axe has fallen – musicians’ livelihoods sacrificed to keep the administrators’ snouts in the (diminishing) trough.
Yes I believe that the more pressure and media coverage, the biggest chance for an effect! Maybe they thought people would just moan and do nothing so even more of a reason to unite and show the power of people coming together
Is it fair to blame the administrators? Perhaps a totally philistine, far right Tory government is the real villain of the piece here?
From what I’ve heard, the management have treated the musicians appallingly and with little to no compassion. But yes of course, the government/ACE are the head of the snake.
Hurray! Thank you so much to the Berlin Philharmonic for this amazing support. We must fight to keep our arts institutions strong and hope that the management of Northern Ballet truly realise what they are letting go from June 9th.
Good on the Berlin Phil but what an awful situation.
ACE, you’re destroying our cultural heritage, people’s livelihoods and God knows what will be left for the next generation of hopeful young professional musicians.
Solidarity with my friends in the Northern Ballet Sinfonia, I’m so sad for you all.
Amazing support from the Berlin Phil! What a shame that the Management of Northern Ballet are staying silent on this. This loss of the Northern Ballet sinfonia is another act of cultural vandalism.
The silence from their directors is extraordinary and a PR disaster. Can the NB board really support it? Under such leadership, the future looks very grim for whoever is left in the place. Those in charge will always prioritise looking after themselves. All power to those opposing and highlighting this chicanery.
You have absolutely hit the nail on the head! No pay cuts in management of course, just cutting off half the live product. Shocking that the company go to the RSC with Romeo and Juliet with recorded soundtrack in September. CEO used to work there so has no doubt wangled not using live music even though the RSC are supposed to pride themselves on that.
Is the U.K. once again in danger of becoming the “Land without Music”?
Arts Council England you are not fit for purpose.
Brave BPO. ❤️
Great support from Berlin Phil, hope it will reach far and wide and that more people will join in showing their support. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a unified company working towards the same goal?
Nothern ballet management, it would be great to have a clear message of coaction from you..
“If everyone is moving forward together, the success will take care of itself” Henry Ford
The support of the Berliner Phil for the Northern Ballet Orchestra is a great gesture of musical solidarity. Only true musicians can feel how important is live music for a ballet company.
This is setting such a dangerous precedent for all UK Ballet companies. The management and board of Northern Ballet should be fighting tooth and nail to keep their orchestra
Good on BPO and the many other orchestras and the general public who have shown such support. How does Northern Ballet hope to continue without live music? Surely the dancers will look elsewhere for work if they lose the flexibility of dancing with responsive musicians…
Fantastic to see support from the Berlin Phil. They clearly realise the severity of the situation. The Northern Ballet Sinfonia are a wonderful orchestra who do not deserve the treatment and disrespect they are receiving from their own management.
But perhaps even more crucially, these decisions set dangerous precedents moving forwards for all musical, and indeed cultural institutions in this country – it is extremely difficult to rebuild once things have been destroyed. The absence of comment from Northern Ballet management is baffling.
What a terrible blow for live theatre when our beautiful dancers have to dance to recorded music instead of utilising the talents of our amazing musicians. How do we expect to encourage our young musicians, what will be left for them?
Solidarity for live performers in theatre. What’s the point of seeing a live musical piece without live music? What’s next, replace the ballet dancers with video?
Many years ago I used to see Musicans’ Union stickers everywhere saying “Keep Music Live”.
What happened to those?
More to the point, what happened to our union?!
So the Berlin Philharmonic feel strongly enough to publicise this disastrous situation. There are also similar supporting photos from orchestras up and down the UK including The Halle, Northern Sinfonia, CBSO, RLPO, Northern Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera, not to mention the Tonhalle Zurich. These are just a few. The people who DON’T want this in the public domain are Arts Council England, DCMS and most puzzling of all the management of Northern Ballet. When is this cultural vandalism going to be taken seriously by the people at the top?
It’s great that the Berlin Philharmonic are getting involved! It’s not too late for the Arts Council to come to the rescue…
Huge thanks to the Berlin Phil.
Hopefully this will give a much needed morale boost to the Sinfonia. Things are now at a very low ebb. Management is refusing to work to our existing agreement, instead offering us a zero hours contract going forward yet with no confirmed work on offer. They say there is no money but if you look at the coming season, you’ll see they have sufficient funds to bring back a production which was previously unpopular at the box office as well as to commission a new ballet from the ambitious artistic director. Both of these things would not happen for the foreseeable future is what the CEO told the band some months ago.
Sadly, after a long period of moral blackmail about the perilous state of the company and being told half truths, there is no longer any trust and legal action is possible.
Surely, a contract is a contract!?
Ps No other department has faced any cuts
That’s a bit disturbing. Hope the Board aren’t just relying on what they’re being told by their leadership team without verifying it.
Northern Ballet will be drastically badly affected by not having live music. It could result in the collapse of the company.
Amazing to see this support from yet another fantastic orchestra. When will ACE finally listen? They are slowly but surely destroying our incredible musical heritage. My heart weeps for the youth of this country. Their future is looking so bleak.
I attended the performance of Romeo & Juliet at Sadlers Wells on Wednesday, 29th May. The orchestra, as usual, was first rate. I spent 23 years as Orchestra Manager, 1995 – 2018, with Northern Ballet and was always proud of the standard achieved & maintained by this fine ensemble. I’m both deeply saddened & angry that these dedicated musicians are facing such an uncertain future.
Yet again another arts organisation is suffering as a result of public spending cuts. The arts are always perceived as a soft target!!
It’s about time government provided proper, appropriate, funding. If the arts continue to be overlooked the UK is in danger of becoming a cultural desert
Barry Collarbone
Having also attended on Wednesday night, I have to say I disagree, in places, the music was less than great – corroborated by Matthew Paluch for Gramilano. Despite this, devastated for Northern Ballet, they and their audiences deserve live music and ACE are going to continue to avoid answering for their crimes against the arts given the inquiry is sure to be cut short by the general election.
“Das Land Ohne Musik” apparently penned by Oskar Adolf Hermann Schmitz, in 1904, when it was actually becoming less true…….
Oskar Adolf Hermann Schmitz. A Grouch, a Fuehrer, a Reichsmarschall said to have launched the “Bismarck” by leaning on it and a Broadway actress nee Gerber. What’s in a name?
According to Northern Ballet’s website, Beauty and the Beast next week at Leeds Grand will be performed with live music. Next Spring’s Jane Eyre in Leeds and on tour is with live music. A Christmas Carol this coming Autumn in Leeds and on tour is with recorded music. So, a lean Christmas in prospect for members of the Northern Ballet Sinfonia?
It is heartening to see solidarity across the globe for this wonderful orchestra. Orchestras don’t just happen – they take years of dedication to find their sound, cohesion and spirit. Freelance bands are great but will never replace the excellence of ensembles that regularly perform together.
And then there is dancing to recording. This makes no sense. Northern ballet already do a fantastic job of taking narrative dance to parts of the country and theatres that wouldn’t otherwise have access. While I believe the management could undoubtedly do more, no one wants this situation – not the musicians, not the dancers and not the administrators. However, systemic funding cuts have brought us here. London will always have access to live art forms but what about the rest of the country? And what about those other stories that need to be told?
This is a situation myself and others never saw coming. Just a few years ago NB have full scale tours, mid scale tours and children’s ballet tours all to live music. What a difference a few Tory years makes, eh?
It’s ironic that even ABBA Voyage use a LIVE band to accompany holograms. Performances of films are screened with a LIVE orchestra playing the sound track. Having seen the beautiful performance of Romeo and Juliet the other night given by Northern Ballet, it’s clear that a LIVE performance is all about the interaction between everyone. Dancers, Musicians, stage hands, and audience. It’s a unique moment in time. This is why the public want to see all elements working together. It’s so narrow minded, and short sighted to effectively remove a key component, leaving behind Karaoke dancing.
Thank you Berlin Philharmonic!…
Your moral support is dearly appreciated.
As so many have said, this is quite simply cultural vandalism and what’s more it’s ideology driven instead of financially. The amount of money it takes to fund the Arts properly is so small relative to the richness it brings society, and really a tiny dot relative to the financial support dished out to financial /corporate sectors. We all seem to have internalised the values of the so-called “free” market. We need to fight to save the Arts… What’s being lost will not come back easily.
Very sad that the Northern Ballet management have handled this in such a gutless and divisive way. It demonstrates shocking naivety and lack of foresight. How can they possibly survive with the path they have taken… Wake up and shake up!…
Great to see this cause gaining international attention. But disappointing that it seems to fall on deaf ears here in the U.K. With ENO and WNO reducing orchestra hours as well there seems to be increasingly little out there in the way of regular jobs for our musicians, leaving many to have to work in other industries to make ends meet. With cuts across the industry it seems to be the orchestras taking the biggest hit every time.
Personally I can see no reason for an audience for any art form to want to turn up to watch it or look at it when a major part of that art from is missing. It would be like going to an art gallery to see the picture frames!! Maybe the record companies should refuse to license their recordings for live performance. Then if the musicians union refuses to allow its members to record the score and the venues are not given a licence by PRS to play recorded music for a performance none of this would be allowed to continue.
Don’t worry – nobody at ACE has heard of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Bravo Berlin! The latest to show their support for a wonderful orchestra.
Keep Northern Ballet LIVE! As someone who is only ever a member of the audience, I cannot emphasis enough the importance, not to mention the absolute joy, of hearing live music during a ballet performance. Live music enhances the ballet and the same effect would not be had with dancers dancing to tape recordings. KEEP NORTHERN BALLET LIVE!
Is there no possibility of commercial sponsorship for this orchestra? No endowments? It’s no use sitting outside the ACE with a begging bowl any more.
What a barbaric decision to axe this orchestra. Northern Ballet will be infinitely poorer for it.
With few notable exceptions, arts admins in the UK are stuffed with mediocre self inflated ignorantly arrogant mediocrities slashing long established companies under the guise of cos played virtue signalling, and of course building their own tawdry career portfolios.
Shame on them.
If only the gutsy crew organising these fightbacks were in charge, the arts in this country would stand a chance.
Thank you to the musicians of the Berlin Phil for standing up for us musicians in the UK. It’s reached so far thanks to the incredible work of the people tirelessly campaigning for the orchestra. Sadly it doesn’t seem to have moved those in the decision making echelons of our country and our industry. Even the Germans have taken a stand on the state of live music in the UK now – where is the support from our leaders? They need to come out and fight with the musicians, or will they embarrass the country on our behalf once again while Europe watches on? Our audiences deserve better than karaoke.
Standing ovation for the orchestra at their last performance. Hard to understand why there was no speech, acknowledgement, gratitude, regret.. nothing from management at all. Disgusting disgraceful behaviour. Truly hard to understand.