Saving the Ulster Orchestra is by any standards, a priority

The modern trend in Orwellian-sounding government cultural policy is to head for the grass roots to look for new mainsprings of creativity. It has a variety of motives and aims. In GB,  the policies of the  DCMS and in Northern Ireland DCal and the priorities of various cash-strapped Arts Councils are also about investing in arts jobs and education to try to grow an economic sector and on the side, to boost “community cohesion.” All very good no doubt.  There  will  always be arguments over whether  to invest in buildings or talent.  .Sometimes a note of silly philistinism creeps in when the claim is heard that the state is superserving a tiny cultural elite. Tell that to all the young  fiddlers and blowers about the place and their parents who have  cultural ambition.

The threat to the Ulster Orchestra is grim news. It has been noticed in  the UK music press. The orchestra chairman Sir George Bain who is  an internationally renowned ( correction) economist  and a  former chairman of the Low Pay Unit and VC of Queen’s, does not cry wolf easily.

There are only two not quite full size professional symphony orchestras on this island with a population of six and a half million. I put it that way because culture is indivisible. There has always been the sort of muttering about the quality of management of the Ulster Orchestra that goes with pinched funding. It now has a new conductor from Venzuela, a troubled country which has brought  new energy and vigour to classical music- making at the grass roots. There may be lessons to learn here for outreach. . Its latest programme is rich and varied.

What is the point of the Ulster Orchestra in the digital age? For a start, to provide live serious music for a core of 1.8 million people. Then to set a standard for local music making in stringed and wind instruments, a tradition which has always thrived and needs to develop beyond the synthesiser  and the electric guitar.  The Ulster Orchestra  simply must not be allowed to die or scale down to exclusively  light music orchestral level. Times are tough for everybody.  But Northern Ireland at this stage of its fragile development  as a civilised community  cannot afford to be the only  region where the thrill of the live orchestral sound is no longer regularly  heard.

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