7/1/2023 0 Comments Storyo us ukuleleNo orchestra on its own, hard as we work can make up for this vacuum and we all need music education reinstated as soon as possible. In my experience, the UK seems to engage with this less than any other European country. The educational and social benefits of arts education is proven. We now have an entire generation who weren’t offered music as part of their core curriculum. Governmentally, the arts should be spoken about with pride and confidence. It gives the city strength, identity, a sense of community. Even people who don’t visit the opera house in their city feel it is theirs. My experience of Europe, at the Bergen Philharmonic, suggests it takes greater pride in cultural establishments. We need to shout more about the excellence and passion of our work. Look to Europe and speak about the arts with pride Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian 3. Stories that impact people today… Chanáe Curtis, Idunnu Münch, Nadine Benjamin and Sarah-Jane Lewis in Blue by Jeanine Tesori, at English National Opera, April 2023. Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, chief executive, UK Music If young people aren’t exposed to it, classical music has no future. I’d also like to see the government honour its manifesto promise of a £90m premium for arts education in schools. There’s no point in saving the cultural sector only to see it disintegrate now. During the Covid crisis, the government’s £2bn rescue package kept many organisations alive. First the pandemic and then Brexit to contend with, and now high inflation, high energy costs and audiences are still slightly down on pre-pandemic levels. The last three or four years have been so difficult for the sector it feels we have a perfect storm today. The government should supercharge philanthropy to make it much easier for private individuals to support the sector. I’d like to see a better settlement for the BBC and for the Arts Council. It enriches lives in so many ways.But it’s an expensive art form and without support – from charities, government, philanthropists – organisations will not be able to build future audiences, ticket prices will rise and classical music risks becoming the preserve of the few. Everyone should have access to classical music. That experience inspired me to go to university to study music and put me on the path to where I am today. I would never have been at that concert if it wasn’t for the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, a charity that gives young people tickets to concerts. ‘It’s not for me’ has to be turned into ‘I can’t live without this’ It’s raw, brutal even, certainly not tuneful, and it completely captivated me. But then they played Ligeti’s Métamorphoses Nocturnes, written in the 1950s, a few years after most of his family had been killed in the Holocaust. I still remember what was played – Beethoven then Brahms (super boring, I thought). But my life changed at 17 when I was given a ticket to hear a string quartet. I grew up on a north London estate with no interest in classical music. The Tories should honour their £90m manifesto pledge Pappano conducts Wozzeck there from 19 May. How many things in life can do all that? Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House. Classical music gets your brain as well as your heart going. I hope it provokes a real discussion for once. How can their existence be so threatened? Music’s value and importance was there for everyone to see. That’s a beautiful thing – why don’t we celebrate it? Conducting at the coronation proved what an extraordinary array of talent we have here in the UK, from gospel choirs to brass bands. Classical music – and all culture – helps grow our collective awareness of what it is to be a human being. In Italy, where I conduct the Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the audience applaud when a senior politician comes to a concert. I find it upsetting that British politicians are afraid of revealing that they’re interested in culture.
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