[The following is the text of a letter to my MP, Wera Hobhouse. It is mostly my own words, though I have used some wording that was suggested to me by a choir I sing in. I have lightly edited it to remove a personal name but local people will be able to reconstruct it.]
Dear Ms Hobhouse,
A letter was recently printed in the Guardian highlighting the great damage that the current emergency is doing to choral music in the UK. The letter is signed by some of the most distinguished names in British choral music, several of whom I have had the privilege of singing for. They include a resident of Bath who is director of a local choir.
Your native country sets a high value on musical culture, and the German government is making a special effort to help classical music ensembles survive lockdown. To date I have not seen anything like the same commitment from the government of the UK. The department for ‘Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’ in practice does not pay much attention to culture compared with the other three parts of its remit.
Britain has a world-class tradition of choral singing by both professionals and amateurs, built up over centuries. Not for nothing is our oldest music festival (founded in 1715) called the ‘Three Choirs’. Large numbers of people of all ages and backgrounds participate. As well as singing in Bath I travel to Gloucester and Bristol each week during the concert season, and to Reading some 10 times a year, in order to sing in the choirs which are right for me. This level of commitment is not exceptional.
Bath as you know had a flourishing choral scene prior to lockdown, with enough singers and audience members to support many choirs. The centrepiece of the International Festival and the Mozartfest, which bring large numbers of visitors to stay here, is usually a choral concert in Bath Abbey. Indeed, one aim of the Abbey’s Footprint project is to make it easier to stage large-scale concerts there with choir and orchestra.
The longer the cesssation of choral singing lasts, the harder it will be to restart it, because of financial losses and lack of continuity in choir membership. Audiences thereafter are likely to be smaller because of social distancing measures and lack of confidence among potential audience members. There is a real risk that many musical ensembles will cease to exist, and with them the livelihoods of professional musicians, many of whom rely on conducting, accompanying or playing for amateur choirs for much of their income. The wider effects of this loss are far-reaching: less money coming into our city from visitors attending concerts, damage to the morale and even the mental well-being of singers, and an impoverishment of our national cultural life. The reinstatement of public singing as soon as it is safe to do so should be considered therefore as a matter of urgency, no less than re-opening pubs and resuming sporting fixtures.
I understand that there is to be a British scientific study of the likelihood of transmitting COVID-19 by singing. This is good, as the evidence about this to date has been essentially anecdotal rather than scientific. There is also currently talk of permitting public vocal performance by professional singers but not by amateurs. There is no medical rationale behind this as COVID-19 cannot tell when you open your mouth whether you are being paid to do so.
I would be grateful if you, as my constituency MP, would press the Department for Digital, Culture Media, and Sport, along with the Department of Health and Social Care, to
- consult widely with senior members of the music profession (such as the signatories to the letter mentioned above)
- urgently issue guidance to choirs and choral groups of when and how they may safely resume activities
- when it is safe to give choral concerts, make it clear to the general population that they may attend them without undue risk to themselves
Yours etc.
[This was almost immediately overtaken by events as the day after I sent it over £1 billion was pledged by the Government to support cultural venues. However the points about scientific research into the risk of singing, and about convincing the public to return to concerts, remain.]