BBC Musicians' Public Service Music Strategy: 2023 and beyond.
New strategy for Classical Music
prioritises Quality, Agility,
Impact and Common Sense.
BBC Musicians today set out a new strategy
to strengthen their public purpose for classical music.
Following last year’s classical review looking at the sector and the BBC’s role within it, BBC musicians today set out a new strategy to strengthen their public purpose for classical music, delivering the best music to a wider audience, with significant new emphasis on self run efficiency and expertise.
The new strategy ensures every pound of licence fee funding works harder for the sector and for our audiences now, and in the future.
At the heart of the plan, BBC musicians commit to:
- Creating agile ensembles that can work flexibly and creatively, working with more musicians and less executive/management wastage, cutting salaried administrative posts across the BBC English Orchestras by around 25%.
- Reinforcing the distinctiveness of the BBC’s five unique orchestras, artistically, educationally and geographically serving their own audiences whilst fulfilling their collective role in providing the widest range of content across Radio 3 and BBC platforms.
- Halving spending on superfluous BBC executive roles, freeing up resources to launch new training initiatives, providing more opportunities for people to engage with classical music, building audiences and creating extraordinary experiences.
- Creating a centre of excellence for our broadcast orchestras, giving audiences access to the full range of our high-quality orchestral content, including new and archive performances, educational content and concert listings.
- Taking the difficult decision to remodel management in such a way as to ensure that the musicians' collective expertise is maximised both on and behind the concert platform and commissioning processes.
The BBC, as the biggest commissioner of music and one of the biggest employers of musicians in the country, has a vital part to play in the British cultural landscape and a duty to future proof what we deliver for the public. At a time of very real financial challenges across the orchestral and choral sectors, BBC musicians have reviewed how they wish to invest resources to deliver the best possible value for the licence fee payer. A key part of this is the BBC’s role in national musical culture, thereby ensuring we create stronger partnerships to develop future talent.
The strategy invests more widely in the sector across the UK, whilst delivering savings that ensure we deliver high quality orchestral and choral music within a sustainable financial model. Even were there no financial challenges, we believe these steps are the right ones to take to help ensure the future success of the sector.
Johnny Morris, the BBC’s Chief "Alternatives" Officer, says: “This is the second major review of classical music at the BBC in a generation. The first one published in March 2023 was unworkable and negative.This new strategy is bold, ambitious, and good for the sector and for audiences who love classical music. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t had to make some difficult decisions, but equally they are the right ones for the future. Great classical music should be available and accessible to everyone, and we’re confident these measures will ensure more people will engage with music, have better access to it, and that we’ll be able to play a greater role in developing and nurturing the musicians and music lovers of tomorrow.”
Future-proofing BBC Ensembles
Building on the founding principles of the BBC orchestras as flexible and adaptable, we are creating agile ensembles that can work creatively, giving the musicians agency over their working practice and decision making when needed and broadcasting from many venues in different parts of the country. This flexibility will enable our orchestras to perform the full range of repertoire, from intimate smaller scale works to the largest full-scale symphonic and choral pieces. A voluntary redundancy programme will open across salaried administrative/executive posts in the English Orchestras (BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra), aiming to reduce salaried management posts across the BBC orchestras by around 25%. The Performing Groups will be run by player led Executive Board structures (Appendix 1 below), alongside slimmed down administration bodies that will also draw widely from the unquestionable talent within the Performing Groups (Appendix 2: Performing Group initiatives during the Covid lockdowns and beyond), a model that is very much industry standard across the sector.
Across the nations, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and The Ulster Orchestra will continue to play an essential broadcast role for the BBC, delivering distinctive orchestral performances and education programmes. As the changes are made across the English groups, the Head of Orchestras and Choirs will step down and allow the Orchestra Directors of the Nations’ Orchestras to consider whether there could be any lessons for the Nations’ Orchestras.
With increased agility and flexibility, all BBC Orchestras will bring the best of classical music to a wider range of venues, performing and broadcasting from up to 50 new performance venues from the 2024/25 season and beyond.
Investing in music education
Working closely with external and internal BBC partners, including BBC Radio 3, Autumn 2023 will see the launch of a major nationwide music education offer aiming to reach every school in the UK through online, broadcast and live performance. The BBC is doubling its current investment in music education to kick-start the process and further details of the offer will be announced later this year.
And why ever not? The BBC Performing Groups are full of talented inspirational musicians with a proven track record of impactful education work.
Investing in a new digital home
The BBC will create a new single digital home for its orchestras, giving audiences access to the full range of high-quality orchestral content. This will include new and archive performances, educational content and concert listings.
Investing in choral singing across the UK
The BBC Singers will be saved. The end.
Championing the distinctive five BBC Orchestras
The BBC Orchestras hold a special place in the cultural landscape of the UK, with many concerts across the country featuring the world’s best soloists and conductors. They are at the heart of the world’s biggest classical music festival, the BBC Proms, and they deliver a range of music and repertoire at the highest possible level. The BBC will build on the success of its orchestras, increasing agility and flexibility through its new working model which puts access, visibility, and player led expertise that hitherto has been wasted to the fore.
East Bank will be the new home for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus from 2025, with tailored flexible studios being built on the site of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as part of new cultural quarter in East London, alongside the V&A, UCL, London College of Fashion and Sadler’s Wells. The BBC Concert Orchestra’s administrative base will be at East Bank, and discussions are ongoing to find a home for them outside the M25. Or they might very well remain in the South East where they are currently based. The BBC Philharmonic continues to have its home in Salford, alongside a raft of Radio 3 programmes which will move there in 2024/25, further strengthening a new hub of excellence for classical music rooted in the North. We are committed as ever to perform and broadcast from all corners of the UK.
As well as significant savings, this strategy will turbo charge the public service role that BBC Performing Groups can contribute to British cultural life, placing those best equipped and informed to streamline and expand a thrilling new chapter in the BBC's musical output across all genres.
The strategy really does build on the 2022 Classical Review. This review was informed by research into the UK’s classical music ecosystem.
Apendix 1/:
Each PG will be run on an industry standard model of executive Boards, non remunerated positions applied for by tender and voted for by players:
- Board of Directors (legal, financial, local politics, BBC comissioning etc)
-Finance Board (business leads, commercial+BBC etc)
-Development Board (technology, marketing etc)
-Education Board (local LEA, charities, DFE etc)
-Players' Board (+30% musician representation in each of the above)
Orchestral administration will be an efficient and flexible team of professionals (Fixer, Personel Manager, Education Lead, Marketing lead, Librarian, Broadcast Coordinator and Arranger) all supported at any one time by a rotation of suitably trained/expert staff players whose temporary absence would be covered as required by freelance professionals. This would be remunerated pro rata by negotiation with the Musicians' Union/Bectu.
Appendix 2/
Player led production 2020 onwards:
To name but a few outstanding broadcast contributions:
The Paul Harvey track (over £1 million raised for dementia charities), multiple local radio collaborations, multiple Music Matters presentations, Inside Music guest presenters, The Verb, Gingerbread Man for CBeebies, multiple collaborations across all BBC networks from Radio 1 through to Radio 5 live and even BBC Sport.
Finally, if this bold really new strategy is accused by anyone of being composed on the back of a proverbial fag packet, they're right, it is, but all we can say in reply is the following:
1) The March 2023 strategy crashed and burned within 5 weeks on exposure to public scrutiny
2) Our fag packet is a little larger, a bit more considered and makes sense.
BBC Classical Music requires ONE executive role, not the FIVE currently each earning in excess of £125,000 (not including expenses and bonuses).
Let the creatives run themselves.
Save 25% of the budget.
"Value for All".
Johnny Morris, un-remunerated executive "Alternatives" Officer, BBC W1A
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