A new report shows the reach of orchestral education and outreach is up, but illustrates a sector more precarious than many realise. Just in time for that Arts Council England survey.
The Association of British Orchestras have published a report about the ‘State of the UK’s Orchestras’ this week, headlining a significant increase in reach for audiences in the UK and across the world, in addition to more children and young people experiencing events staged by UK orchestras.
Fifty three out of a total of eighty five UK orchestras responded to the survey capturing data from 2022-23, comparing it with a similar survey run before the pandemic in 2019. That already gives you an indication of how small this industry is. That’s important.
The report details how UK orchestras staged nearly 3000 concerts and performances, reaching a total of more than 3.1 million people. Internationally, UK orchestras reached 640,000 people in 34 countries in 374 concerts.
Behind the numbers, the report tells a different story of an industry that is smaller, more precarious, and more quietly adaptive than perhaps most audiences realise.
The figures show a fragile industry that belies the solidity and grandeur an ensemble conveys in real life. The sector survey shows less than 1000 musicians are salaried in UK ensembles, with 1385 freelance musicians (up 34.6% on 2019).
There was a near 22% drop in the number of extra players (musicians bought in for programmes that demand larger than normal forces) contracted for concerts suggesting programmes were chosen to limit the expenditure in a year many considered wouldn’t see a return to pre-pandemic ticket levels. The number of non-musician staff amounts to only 1598, meaning the ratio of back-office staff to musicians is nearly evenly split 1:1.46. Orchestral delivery isn’t simply about the performers but the complex and often highly skilled infrastructure around them. If you’re one of those 1598, then you’re a special person in my book.
For an industry that is often heard advocating itself by illustrating the impact it has on so many in its audience, the disconnect between what the audience sees and what it is involved in producing events makes for an interesting contradiction, and a potential opportunity.
Back to the figures. There are a lot of them. I’m sorry.
The 45% increase in Arts Council income in 2019 at £52.7m is likely largely down to the last payments in the Culture Recovery Fund, set up in July 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic, in addition to Orchestra Tax Relief (£20m). Individual giving (people donating money) has made a 50% contribution to a 31% increase in fundraising (meaning people who care about this care a lot). Ticket sales were up 40%, adding £34.9m to the pot.
According to the Association of British Orchestras submission to the House of Lords European Affairs Committee in 2022, the UK orchestral sector contributes around £148 million to the national economy each year. It’s a modest figure compared to other industries — but for a workforce of just over 13,000 people, it’s a sign of a sector that punches well above its weight.
This could easily read as something by the UK orchestral industry as something self-congratulatory. Yet, some details need a little fine-tuning. Attendance at live concerts (regardless of genre) declined by over 25% versus pre-pandemic levels. This might be a reflection of the assumed demographic of an orchestra being the last to return to public gatherings in the wake of the pandemic and the embedded nature of on-demand streaming acting as a distraction for wider audiences at that point in time too. Yet the success story is the 3.8% increase in education and outreach attendance amongst the near 200% increase in education sessions. Young audiences returned faster; older audiences lagged behind.
If the survey submissions amongst respondents are an accurate reflection, then UK orchestras digital distribution sees the greatest, and perhaps most surprising: 127% gain in reach. In 2022/23 67m people in the UK listened to UK orchestras, with an estimate 236m worldwide. Recording work offered healthy reach (though the costs and income aren’t made clear in the report) even though there was still a significant drop of a third still evident in 22/23 compared to 2019.
Perhaps the most striking realisation is just how few people are involved in making UK orchestras happen. With just over 2,300 musicians on salaried or freelance contracts, supported by 1,598 non-musician staff, the entire workforce is around 4,000 strong — a small sector, delivering at extraordinary scale. The UK orchestral scene is small, between 7 and 15% of which have any real contractual stability.
For an industry that punches culturally above its weight, that is some achievement, but its also a fragile state of affairs, and one that doesn’t go reported about or advocated to the wider world. What the audience sees on-stage isn’t necessarily an accurate depiction of what it takes get the orchestra there. There’s an argument too that says that those other places where orchestras crop up, the wider audience either doesn’t ‘see’ an orchestra as such, either in film credits or community projects. Orchestras are rooted in cultural capital, missing out on the visibility the commercial opportunities and broader appeal that say sport benefits from.
In this way, orchestras like many other artistic endeavours, struggle to tell their story. And its one that needs to be told if audiences are to understand what’s at stake. That this report was released two days before the much-heralded BBC Proms launch might be seen as good timing in spreading the message wider. With the BBC edging closer to broader appeal, crossover, and multi-genre programme that challenges the validity of the tagline ‘the world’s greatest classical music festival’ editors and traffic-chasers will end up choosing the Proms over advocacy for an often taken for granted industry, just when the industry needs the reality of its state shared more widely.
To put it in perspective: the BBC spent £18 million on its orchestras in 2022/23 — about the same as a season of Strictly Come Dancing. One dominates the Saturday night schedule. The other is quietly threaded through broadcast credits, its value mostly invisible.
Arguably, broadcast commentary is where that point could be conveyed, though most will know that the story broadcasters prefer to tell prioritises saying anything that might frighten off the curious newcomer they’re pursuing.
Even if the story to be told from the survey is lost is the audience facing announcements over the next few days, the survey highlights one way in which the industry might need to adapt in order for more useful decision making to happen. To reflect on figures which are in effect three years old (especially from a time which was still post-pandemic dealing with extraordinary challenges), is not so much the state of orchestras now as the state of them then. What would be more useful would be to know sooner how those figures compare with the year that followed. This lack of movement is likely of course a reflection of the limited resources the organisations themselves have in generating the information. But if there is a story to tell that is relevant to people who need to hear it, then more recent data is going to be invaluable.
Why now? The timing might have been better. More time ahead of the Proms launch (arguably a noisiest time for classical music in the UK) might have helped, but maybe the ABO was playing clever. The same day as the Proms launch is the day Arts Council England have set the deadline for its own survey on how its doing. There will be many in the industry who will (if they haven’t already) see this as an opportunity to signal their displeasure at the Lets Create strategy which has seen a number of major UK organisations miss out on their national portfolio status and a significant amount of money. Might the fragile precious status of the UK’s orchestral scene as evidenced in some of the data in the survey persuade some respondents to provide the necessary brutal feedback needed to adapt it? Or will some who register the significant uptick in reach for the education and outreach projects surveyed see that as justification for the controversial strategy? Something to keep an eye on.
