Category: Opinion
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Opinion – The Culture Secretary we never got (and the message that missed the mark)
Thangam Debbonaire — the former shadow culture secretary who missed out on her constituency and the chance to the UK government’s Culture Secretary — has secured, in addition to a baronetcy, a new role heading up a lobby group for the opera industry: the UK Opera Association.
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Sir Keir Starmer on Radio 3’s Private Passions: heartfelt but a little hollow
Sir Keir Starmer’s Private Passions appearance is part love-letter to music, part soft-focus politics. He’s evidently warm in his advocacy of music education, but the committment is light on detail, for all the obvious reasons.
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Southbank Centre’s risky bid to sound unstuffy
Every bid for a new audience sends a message to the old one. The art is making sure it’s not a goodbye.
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BBC Scottish Symphony’s Ilan Volkov speaks out against Israel at the BBC Proms
A cracking performance of Brahms’ fortifying Symphony No. 2 rounded off with a much-needed plea from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductor Ilan Volkov
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Opinion – The bigger picture on BBC orchestras (and why more tv isn’t the answer)
The BBC has been forced to do more with less for years. Orchestras are a tiny fraction of its output, and classical music isn’t what the broad audience is demanding. The Proms remain protected because they deliver reach — and reach is what justifies the Licence Fee.
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BBC Proms 2025: Strategy, subtext, and the shape of things to come?
Strategic messaging dominates Proms Week 1 but what happens to critique when the mood music is set from the top?
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Opinion: music education deserves better than this
An article about a family spending £150,000 on music lessons plays to the gallery of outrage — but overlooks what really matters: the quiet disappearance of accessible, public music education, and the values it instils in young people.
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The Benedetti Model: Leadership in Practice and Performance
Inside a values-driven programme that stretches across the country and highlights what the state still fails to deliver.
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Broad and telling: what the BBC’s new collaboration with the EBU might be signalling
Billed as pioneering, the BBC’s EBU collaboration hints at strategic changes in classical music broadcasting.
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3 Million Listeners. 4,000 Workers. One Fragile Industry.
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.