Friday, March 25, 2022

Band news

Paul Hughes is stepping down this summer, after 23 years as director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers. His last gig will be the first night of the 2022 Proms, which might help get the leaving do through on expenses. 

It means Controller R3 Alan "Wavey" Davey will have to find someone new to lead/drag the Orchestra to Stratford East Bank, away from their beloved and still-unsaleable Maida Vale. 

With a frozen licence fee, the BBC often ruminates on its Orchestras. They're still trying to find a new base for the BBC Concert Orchestra, somewhere "Across The UK", probably beyond their three-year Great Yarmouth residency. 

Former BBC Executive Helen Boaden reviewed RTE's Orchestra 'problem' in 2018, and recommended a transfer of the Symphony Orchestra and associated Choirs to the control of Dublin's National Concert Hall. That move finally happened in January this year, with 8 million euros 'saved' by RTE, and transferred with Government support to the NCH. 

Meanwhile former R3 and Proms Controller Roger Wright (in the days when doing both jobs was fashionable and good value) has just been named Concert Hall Manager of the Year for his work at Snape Maltings. 

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