One of Britain’s most successful orchestras is moving to Belgium amid fears that its musicians may be among the victims of a post-Brexit crackdown on immigration.
The European Union Baroque Orchestra has been based in Oxfordshire since 1985, but will give its last UK concert in its current form at St John’s Smith Square, London, on 19 May, before moving to Antwerp.
The band are an EU propaganda exercise. They can fuck right off back to their paymasters.
“EUBO is delighted to be partnered by nine European organisations…with co-funding from the Creative Europe programme of the European Union….EUBO has been honoured with the status of Cultural Ambassador for the European Union in perpetuity.”
http://eubo.eu/eubo/orchestral-biography/
Yes, one of the odder things I have realised listening to Radio 3 on my new and tedious commute is that the EU has a number of orchestras. I’m aware of Youth and Chamber, as well as the Baroque. Why?
How is that contributing to the Germans not invading Paris again?
I can see some minor point in the Youth Orchestra … But not enough that tax money should be paying for it. Of course tax money pays for most orchestras, in some form or another.
The clue was in the name of the orchestra.
EUBO has been honoured with the status of Cultural Ambassador for the European Union in perpetuity
Or until they decide you aren’t.
“The European Union Baroque Orchestra … will give its last UK concert in its current form at St John’s Smith Square, London, on 19 May, before moving to Antwerp.”
London collectively shrugs its shoulders.
” tax money pays for most orchestras, in some form or another”
I just looked up the London Symphony Orchestra accounts.
Total income £16m
Of which
Arts council grants £2.9m
City corporation £2.0m
London Philharmonic
Total income £10.8m
Of which government grants =£2.6m
Does this count as fake news?
Is that St John’s, Smith Square? I have been there. Nice building. Conservative Central Office used to be opposite, so for an EU orchestra to be playing their last swansong under the (now vacant) eyes of the people who fucked their organisation up is a nice irony.
Does this count as fake news?
Well, if they would collapse without it then it does pay for them, I suppose.
Yeah, because there’s such a shortage of orchestral players out there.
I’m going to see Psycho in Bath in May. Film + live orchestra. Never done one before, but Hermann’s score is one of my favourite film scores. And it’s £14. I’m sure there’s a bit of subsidy from the nice people of Bath, but even so, that’s not a lot of money for live entertainment. There isn’t a massive demand for live classical concerts any longer.
Oxford (as in University of) is apparently in talks with the French government to open a campus in France. So they can continue to receive EU grants.
I can’t say I care much but it is nice to see off shoring working.
‘victims of a post-Brexit crackdown on immigration’
VICTIMS ?!?!?
If they are living in England illegally, they are not victims. They are perpetrators.
A number of UK universities now have campuses elsewhere in the world.
BiW,
> And it’s £14
That’s a very good deal. In London, the outdoor cinemas charge upwards of £16 to watch old films outside in the rain.
> I’m sure there’s a bit of subsidy from the nice people of Bath
Hard to tell, but it appears the Bath Festival is largely funded by private sponsors. That’s a lot easier to do in a place like Bath than in e.g. Swindon.
When I voted Leave, I was unaware that this would happen.
I demand a second referendum.
Martin
the growth of campuses is quite astonishing. Eg I believe the University of Manchester has a campus in the City of London – a part of the country that is not exactly under-endowed with universities and colleges, even if you allow City University to self-describe itself in such a way.
It’s all a bit of spin. The EUBO is designed to give young Early music specialists a taste of orchestral life and the composition changes each year or so. most are from Poland, i seem to recall. Many of the bands in this field are pretty fully populated and often the only way to get work is to form one’s own. No idea why they are based in Oxford, I’d have thought York would have been better, but it makes no odds as none of them are british anyways.
Part of the purpose of this sort of outfit is to try and co-opt European culture so that it becomes part of the EU project. That the initiative has been successful is shown by the amount of time people like Dan Hannan have to spend saying that they are anti-EU, not anti-European.
So the last concert is part of an it’s over-tour?
This is a variant of the Baby Seal Gambit, seen elsewhere for example when councils threaten to close the kiddies library if they don’t get a 20% council tax increase.
Do you want these vulnerable young people to have to live in Belgium? Well, DO YOU???
Is the EUBO a double reed instrument?
Andrew M,
“That’s a very good deal. In London, the outdoor cinemas charge upwards of £16 to watch old films outside in the rain.”
But that’s hipster stuff. You could double the price and they’d still pay it.
Fuck knows why people want to watch movies at the same quality as dirt-poor rural Indians.
So it’s not a Britih orchestra, given that its current line-up has no UK personnel. Its success or otherwise is not defined in any way. It has 5 concerts scheduled for the UK in 2017.
We might be able to survive its departure from these shores.
“As former EC President José Manuel Barroso said “EUBO is a perfect symbol of the power of
integration, a subtle and potent instrument of harmonisation between people and nations.””
And how can it be a UK orchestra if its courses seem to take place in Echternach, Luxembourg and Bucharest?
The story is highly misleading, isn’t it!
One of Britain’s most successful orchestras
This is a definition of “successful” with which I am unfamiliar.
I reckon if you asked 1,000 people to write down all the successful orchestras in Britain they know that it would be named exactly zero times.
Chester,
you overestimate the Great British Public.
If you asked 1,000 people to write down all the successful orchestras in Britain, at least a third would struggle to use a pencil, 3 people would say ELO, one would say OMD and one would say the LPO. The rest would say Dunno.
If you asked 1,000 people how many had seen a live orchestra in the last ten years the answer would be a handful, only half would have enjoyed the experience.
That’s three jobs lost then, according to its latest accounts.
@Gamecock
“Is the EUBO a double reed instrument?”
Yes, yes it is; part DBC Reed.