Birmingham today…
ALONGSIDE this column a working musician expresses some of the horror that will be widely felt at the prospect of the city of Birmingham becoming a virtual music-free zone.
For the near bankrupt city council the situation may be all too understandable. Years of cuts have taken a massive toll on all services and, faced with withdrawing support from life and death services, aiding the arts may seem almost frivolous.
But, as pianist Gusztav points out, there are strong economic arguments for supporting the arts. It is an area of soft power in which Britain is particularly strong and our orchestras and musicians are at the forefront of this movement.
What must worry everyone who cares about our cultural life is that what is happening in Birmingham today could so easily happen nearer home tomorrow.
Take the BBC, for instance. The knife that has so fatally wounded local radio and reduced the strength of many news gathering departments could soon be poised over some of the many orchestras the BBC supports.
Maintaining an orchestra is a massively costly operation and an accountant looking for easy pickings will almost certainly start to ask questions.
In Scotland we need to be particuarly vigilant over the future of the wonderful BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Not all that many years ago, the BBC Scottish came under severe threat. A rearguard action was successful then in staving off the threat, but we need to be on our guard.
We also need to do all we can to support our musician friends and their employers, by both singing their praises and – whenever we can, now we are no longer Covid bound – getting out and paying to listen to their song.
In a very real sense the same applies to many other areas of the arts. The problems facing the Edinburgh International Festival have been well documented. As with so many other cultural undertakings, the continued existence of the Festival has been described as something of a 'miracle'.
We are going to need many miracles in the years ahead.