Martyn Brabbins resigns as ENO music director
Florence Lockheart
Monday, October 16, 2023
Brabbins has stepped down from the role, which he has held since 2016, in protest against proposed cuts to the company’s orchestra
Martyn Brabbins has announced his resignation from the role of music director with the English National Opera (ENO) following the company’s decision to axe 19 posts within its orchestra and employ its remaining musicians on part-time contracts, losing 40% of their pay.
In a statement released yesterday, Brabbins said: ‘I cannot in all conscience continue to support the Board and Management's strategy for the future of the company. While my feelings on this have been developing for some time, it reached its nadir this week, with the internal announcement of severe cuts to its orchestra and chorus from 2024/25 season. In protest, this afternoon I tendered my resignation with immediate effect.’
The proposed job cuts are a result of financial challenges facing ENO including decreased funding from Arts Council England (ACE) for ENO since 2014, and the requirement for the company to pay back its Covid recovery loan next year. The changes were agreed in conversation with ACE.
Brabbins added: ‘Although making cuts has been necessitated by Arts Council England's interference in the company's future, the proposed changes would drive a coach and horses through the artistic integrity of the whole of ENO as a performing company, while also singularly failing to protect our musicians’ livelihoods. This is a plan of managed decline, rather than an attempt to rebuild the company and maintain the world-class artistic output, for which ENO is rightly famed.’
You can read Brabbins’ full statement below.
The ENO has responded to Brabbins’ resignation with a statement released yesterday, which said Brabbins had agreed to the proposals in earlier board meetings at the company and said: ‘As the ENO’s musical leader, we are disappointed that Martyn has chosen to resign rather than support the company by engaging with the process of creating a sustainable future for the ENO.’
The Musicians' Union (MU) has confirmed plans to reject the ENO’s proposals and ‘fight to keep its members at ENO in full-time jobs, on full-time pay’. The Union has called on the ENO to reconsider these proposals and urged the Government and ACE to reverse its instruction to Arts Council England to take money out of London, write off Covid recovery loans for cultural organisations and permanently raise the orchestral and theatre tax relief.
Violinist Glen Sheldon, MU’s steward at the ENO, said: ’I am deeply shocked by the announcement to take a carving knife to the employment of ENO’s musicians, leaving a rump of work that will no longer be a viable option for many currently employed there, or for those looking to it as a beacon of future opportunity.’
A statement from Martyn Brabbins:
As Music Director of English National Opera for the past seven years, and Head of its orchestra, chorus and music staff, I cannot in all conscience continue to support the Board and Management's strategy for the future of the company. While my feelings on this have been developing for some time, it reached its nadir this week, with the internal announcement of severe cuts to its orchestra and chorus from 2024/25 season. In protest, this afternoon I tendered my resignation with immediate effect.
Although making cuts has been necessitated by Arts Council England's interference in the company's future, the proposed changes would drive a coach and horses through the artistic integrity of the whole of ENO as a performing company, while also singularly failing to protect our musicians’ livelihoods.
This is a plan of managed decline, rather than an attempt to rebuild the company and maintain the world-class artistic output, for which ENO is rightly famed.
I urge ACE to reassess this situation and recognise the devastating implications their funding decisions will have on the lives of individual musicians, as well the reputation of the UK on the international stage.
My wholehearted thanks and support go out to the entire ENO team, especially those in the departments I oversaw. I am incredibly proud of everything we accomplished, and I sincerely hope that the company will find a path that puts exceptional artistry front and centre of its future.
