Asked by
The
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they intend to take steps
to improve support for classical music, particularly for
orchestras and opera companies.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Culture, Media and Sport ( of Whitley Bay) (Con)
My Lords, opera, orchestras and classical music enrich our lives.
Through its investment programme, Arts Council England is
spending almost £60 million per year on classical music and
opera. More opera organisations are being funded than previously,
and support for orchestral organisations has increased in both
number and value, with nearly two dozen sharing over £21 million
a year. We have also extended the higher rate of cultural tax
reliefs, including orchestra tax relief.
The (CB)
My Lords, many of us will no doubt have had recent listening
experiences which give us hope that there is a future for
classical music in this country. But will the Minister accept
that this excellence does not describe the wider narrative of
declining educational opportunities and funding cuts, which have
led inevitably to a necessarily costlier art form being under
considerable threat wherever it is located? Among numerous
concerns, can a way can be found to retain orchestra tax relief
claims on EEA expenditure as, on top of Brexit, this may
otherwise prove disastrous for touring in Europe?
of Whitley Bay (Con)
Since it was introduced in 2016, £75 million has been paid out
through orchestra tax relief. We have extended it at the headline
rates for another two years and are grateful to the Association
of British Orchestras and many others who have joined the
consultation since that was announced in the Budget. Since our
departure from the EU, we are of course bringing our tax reliefs
in line with World Trade Organization rules. I am grateful for
the collaboration we have had. We have made changes on connected
party transactions and the going concern rule, and we are keen to
continue discussion with orchestras to ensure that they know that
only 10% of orchestral output needs to be produced in this
country; they will still be able to tour around the world, so
that people overseas as well as here may enjoy their brilliant
work.
(Lab)
My Lords, I wonder whether the Minister will reflect, along with
the Arts Council, on the situation in the north of England. With
the move of English National Opera to Manchester, the Hallé
Orchestra being in Manchester and the Liverpool Philharmonic
patently being in Liverpool, east of the Pennines is somewhat
bereft of a critical mass, which can be absolutely crucial in
encouraging young people to come forward into this critical
cultural area. Perhaps the Minister will talk to the Arts Council
about this.
of Whitley Bay (Con)
Well, I have had the pleasure of hearing both the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic and the Hallé perform. Of course, as the noble Lord
may know, English National Opera has this week announced its
intention to base itself in Greater Manchester, as well as
continuing its season at the London Coliseum. It is doing so
partly because of the great strength of classical music across
the north-west of England. The Arts Council, of course, is
spending its money more equitably across the country. More
organisations are being funded than ever before in more parts of
the country, and we want to see people wherever they live
benefiting from world-class cultural and artistic output.
(Con)
My Lords, my noble friend will know that orchestras need a strong
pipeline of talent. This will be achieved only when high-quality
music education is available for all across all the country, and
particularly those with potential. The national plan for music
education, which I chaired, will help—when it is finally
implemented. Many schools and music teachers are already doing
remarkable work, but they would certainly welcome some
encouragement. When can we expect to see senior members of
government cheering our brilliant orchestras, choirs and
young musicians from the
front rows of our concert halls, and in schools?
of Whitley Bay (Con)
I am delighted to tell my noble friend that last night, while
some of us were voting on four regret amendments, our right
honourable friend the Chancellor was at the Royal Festival Hall
enjoying the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing Beethoven’s
“Emperor” Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”, which he
tells me was a fantastic production. So, I hope that my noble
friend will be glad to hear that members of His Majesty’s
Government do go and enjoy the output of our world-class
orchestras. I commend her for the work she did on the national
plan for music education, which will ensure that more people from
this country are able to forge careers and continue producing
that wonderful output which makes us all very proud.
(LD)
My Lords, anyone who has heard the annual performance of
“Messiah” by the Halifax Choral Society, with the Black Dyke
Mills Band and orchestra, will know that we are not entirely
without some high-quality music in Yorkshire. The classical music
industry is a net surplus invisible exporter for this country,
and it is absolutely vital that we keep supporting it. I declare
an interest as a former chair of Voces8, which spends quite a lot
of time touring on the continent and in North America. Are the
Government now within sight of getting rid of these bilateral
arrangements, which do not really provide for orchestras and
others to do proper tours of the continent—all the way from
school orchestras such as the London Schools Symphony Orchestra,
which is superb, to classical orchestras as such?
of Whitley Bay (Con)
We are tripling funding for the Music Export Growth Scheme to
more than £3 million over the next two years, which will enable
more touring artists to break into new international markets. We
are also expanding our Export Support Service to further help
creative exporters, including touring musicians We want
our musicians to tour the
world so that their work can be enjoyed overseas, just as it is
here in the UK—including in Yorkshire.
of Knighton (CB)
May I ask the Minister to comment at a more grass-roots level? In
the last few months, we have lost the Dartington summer festival,
which is educational as well; we have lost Oxford Brookes
University teaching music; and we have lost a lot of the
Cheltenham Festivals’ work. I declare my interest as an
ex-director of the Cheltenham international festival of music. I
was there for 10 years and commissioned works—more than 100—as my
successors continue to do. Not only are we losing this
commissioning opportunity, which is so important for young
composers, but local audiences in places that identify as being
under-resourced in music are losing out.
of Whitley Bay (Con)
On a recent visit to Devon, I had the opportunity to meet the new
chief executive of Dartington Trust. The noble Lord is right to
point to the brilliant work done by Cheltenham Festivals in his
time and subsequently. Arts Council England has maintained its
level of funding for Cheltenham Festivals at £217,000 per year,
but I would be very happy to meet people from Cheltenham
Festivals as well as others.
of Hudnall (Lab)
The Minister will be aware that opera and classical music still
suffer from a quite widespread perception that they are not for
anything other than a very small audience. This makes fundraising
extremely difficult for small organisations such as OperaUpClose,
with which I declare a personal connection, which are trying to
take high-quality music and opera into communities where they are
not generally available and to engage them in that work. By the
way, they are also commissioning young composers. Can the
Government encourage a better fundraising environment for those
companies, particularly by encouraging, for example,
match-funding schemes such as the Big Give, which closed this
week?
of Whitley Bay (Con)
I congratulate OperaUpClose, which is one of the new operatic
organisations that have joined the Arts Council national
portfolio. I met another, Pegasus Opera, which is doing great
work as well in encouraging new audiences and new compositions so
that opera can continue to be a rich art form that people of all
backgrounds get to enjoy. The noble Baroness is right that
private philanthropy as well as public subsidy plays an important
part. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State and I
have had meetings with arts organisations and funding bodies to
look at ways in which we might be able to create further
incentives for giving. But I hope that people will be able to
leverage their part in the national portfolio through the Arts
Council—not just to spend the public subsidy that is given but
also to be part of that network, which they now are.
(Con)
My Lords, leaving aside the extreme concern that the Chancellor
is favouring EU composers over British composers—I hope that
nobody tells the Prime Minister that—may I ask my noble friend
what he is doing to increase diversity in classical music? Will
he join me in congratulating the Chineke! Orchestra on its
success and all it has done to increase diversity in our
orchestras, and perhaps illuminate us regarding the discussions
he has had with the Arts Council to continue this impressive
progress?
of Whitley Bay (Con)
The Arts Council did a very valuable study on diversity in
classical music—diversity in every form. As I say, companies such
as Pegasus Opera are doing important work in bringing people from
diverse backgrounds into art forms that we can all enjoy, as are
the Chineke! Orchestra and many others. Through its new national
portfolio, the Arts Council is investing in more companies and
organisations in more parts of the country than ever before,
including those led by a more diverse range of people.
