Protests continue to 'Keep Northern Ballet Live'

Campaigners congregated last night in Stratford-upon-Avon to highlight Northern Ballet's use of recorded music over live performance. 

The demonstration, supported by the Musicians' Union (MU), was held to draw attention to the plight of musicians in the Northern Ballet Sinfonia. The Northern Ballet has opted to switch to recorded music amid spiralling touring costs, which has meant reduced work for its house ensemble. Leaflets were distributed outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to shine a light on the devastating impact such cuts have on musicians. Northern Ballet's promotional copy advertised 'an electric atmosphere' around the company's 'electrifying production', an unfortunate choice of words, given the circumstances. Live acoustic music has always been an integral element of a professional ballet – until now.

The ominous developments were slated earlier this year, when listings for part of the Romeo & Juliet tour featured a circular icon with the advisory note 'Recorded Music'. Northern Ballet blames inflation and increased costs, which make touring with an orchestra prohibitively expensive. An official statement published in September 2023 warned that 'Northern Ballet has had to make the difficult decision to enter into negotiations to reassess the amount of live music that accompanies its touring productions from April 2024. The entire arts industry has been heavily impacted by rising costs across the board, with inflation, the cost of living crisis and the war in Ukraine causing drastic uplifts in the cost of everything from energy bills to set materials to the transportation costs associated with taking a production around the UK. Due to these mitigating factors we have had to take certain steps – there have been redundancies within the company, and a reduction in touring over the past year – however, it has become clear that we can no longer continue with our traditional touring model and we will need to explore different options if we are to continue to bring world-class narrative ballets to audiences throughout the country.'

The MU's placards referenced Stratford-upon-Avon's most famous export, with the caption 'O live performance, wherefore art thou live?' Naomi Pohl, MU general secretary said: 'Replacing live music with a recording is a betrayal to its audience. The opportunity to enjoy live music experiences should be available to everyone and as soon as you begin to scale this back, you start to erode access to culture. Not only that, musicians’ livelihoods are on the line. Our data shows that musicians, on average, earn £20,000 a year – so any cut to this impacts them heavily.

'While we understand the company urgently needs more financial support, depriving its audiences of live music cannot be the answer. That’s why we’re calling on Arts Council England to provide a sustainable funding package to support the Northern Ballet, enabling it to keep its orchestra live.'

Over 21,000 people have signed an online petition created by musicians of the Northern Ballet Sinfonia, which calls for CEO Darren Henley, chair Nicholas Serota, director of dance Cate Canniffe, director of Music Claire Mera-Nelson, Northern Ballet executive director David Collins, chair Guy Perricone and the board of directors to 'Keep Northern Ballet Live'.