March is a month much looked forward here at ABO Towers, for it is holiday month! The whole team at one point or another has been off in search of sun and relaxation. Keith found turtles as he qualified as a PADI diver; Orla found snow and a new found love of skiing; while Mark found rather more hailstones and rain than he would have liked in Oman. We also said a fond “Goodbye” to our out-going Intern, Hester, and wish her all the best as she goes off to pastures new and exciting. And we welcome formally Kirsten as our new Intern though many of you will already have met her down in Cardiff.

However, we have not taken our eye off the ball and during March we have met the following people and organisations: ERA 21;  National Music Council; YPIA; DCSF; Unity Trust Bank; Orchestras Live; Roger Sametz; Capita Symonds; Ruth Hansford, BBC; Dr. Owen Bowden-Jones. The first meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Classical Music took place at Portcullis House, and the ABO/MU negotiating teams have met to discuss the 2009/10 agreement. In addition to this we have attended the Richard Hickox memorial service, the IAMA Conference Launch, the Latitude Festival Launch, the Green Music Launch, Cumberland Lodge conference, and concerts by Sinfonia Viva, London Philharmonic Orchestra and New London Orchestra.

The following meetings are confirmed for this spring / summer:

17 April: Digital Managers' Meeting, Southbank Centre, London
23 April: Finance Managers' Meeting, SOLT / TMA, London
27 April: Opera & Ballet Managers' Meeting, Hippodrome / BRB HQ, Birmingham
11 May: Chamber Orchestra Managers' Meeting, Barbican Centre, London
14 May: Education Managers' Meeting, LSO Bonhill Street, London
20 May: Development & Sponsorship Managers' Meeting, Wigmore Hall, London
4 June: Concert & Orchestra Managers' Meeting, Royal Albert Hall, London

Please note that the afternoon of the Concert & Orchestra Managers Meeting will be devoted to a workshop on German Tax, in association with IAMA. This workshop will be open to all members of ABO and IAMA.

If you would like to attend one of these meetings please log on to the Members Area of the ABO website and then click on Events and book the relevant Specialist Manager Meeting.

Tuesday 28 April - Introduction to Marketing, Course leaders Selena Virrels, Head of Marketing at the Southbank Centre and Melanie Ryan, Marketing Manager at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Royal Over-Seas League, London.

Tuesday 9 June - All that you ever wanted to know about fundraising but were afraid to ask!, Course leader Sarah Gee, Senior Consultant with Dixon Raines. Royal Over-Seas League, London.

Tuesday 23 June - Introduction to Press & PR, Course leader Kate Whyman, a freelance PR consultant specializing in music and the arts. Her client list includes BBC Radio 3, Cadogan Hall, Mayor of London, British Arts Festival Association, Festival and Events International, The Old Market and Brighton Festival of World Sacred Music. She has been PR consultant for the ABO since 2004. LSO St. Luke’s, London.

Tuesday 21 July - Finance for non-Finance Managers, Course leader Maureen McCulloch, a chartered accountant with extensive experience in charities and the arts who has been freelance trainer for twenty-one years. LSO St. Luke's, London.

Limited spaces are available to attend these excellent courses. To find out more information or to book a place please visit the Brass Tacks page of the ABO website.

There is now a page on the website which has some of the presentations and speeches given at the recent conference. You can find it here. Please check back as we are adding to it all the time. You can also download the conference brochure and delegate list on the past conferences page.

The Association of British Orchestras seeks to appoint an evaluation consultant who will carry out a research project on evaluation and measuring the impact of orchestras’ education and community work. The researcher will explore current good practice in terms of impact evaluation, produce practical guidance notes and models to help orchestras with the implementation of new ways of evaluation.

Closing Date for applications: Thursday 30 April 5.00pm
For further information please contact Fiona Harvey, ABO: Fiona@abo.org.uk

This research project is supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
 

The next deadline for Healthy Orchestra Charter Applications is at the end of this month – Friday 24th April. Please get your applications and supporting documents to Keith by this time. He is always ready to give as much advice and support as he can so please do give him a call on 020 7287 0333 or email him if you are about to submit applications.

In Cardiff we awarded Bronze awards to Welsh National Opera and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. We also had applications in for the January deadline but didn’t quite manage to get them adjudicated by the conference so they will be announced shortly.

Following requests from members and a proposal from Capita Symonds we are going to be running a series of days on H&S and Occupational Health training. The first of these is likely to be in mid June and further details will follow as soon as we have them. This will be a two part day focusing on putting together Health and Safety policies and carrying out comprehensive risk assessments and analysis, as well as some more practical matters.

More details coming soon.

The League of American Orchestras, recognizing the extraordinary challenges orchestras are facing this year is working to make its 2009 Conference as affordable and valuable as possible for our members in the US and for our colleagues in the UK. With this in mind, the Conference programme emphasizes practical, hands-on learning that will help managers deal with the core issues of the new economic reality as they shape their longer term strategic direction.

The League is pleased to offer musicians, staff and trustees of orchestras in membership of the Association of British Orchestras a special registration rate of just $100. To receive the League UK Registration form email Russell Jones at rjones@americanorchestras.org

Just a few things this year’s Conference has to offer:

Ideas That Work

Solutions for Our Time: Peer-to-Peer Roundtable discussions focusing on proven ideas that have improved orchestras’ Cash Flow, Marketing, Development, Programming, Cost Control, Planning and Communications and Endowments as they address challenges during the downturn. The session will include orchestras that are thinking beyond today and redefining innovation in the years ahead.

Learn New Skills

Just a few of the 30 sessions that tell you how, answer your questions, and provide new strategies to take home to colleagues

• Financial Management: Strategies for Weathering the Storm
  
• Managing People Today
  
• Guidance for Governance Leaders: Navigating Your Orchestra Through Troubled Times
  
• Trustees as Donors: Essential Skills for a Difficult Climate
  
• A Hard Look at Today’s Economy
  
• Making the Most of Social Networking
  
• Philanthropy and the Arts: What Lies Ahead?

Please visit the Conference area of americanorchestras.org by clicking here, for program descriptions, registration and hotel reservations.

Dilettantemusic.com is a hub for classical music discovery. It is an online community connecting organisations and musicians with audiences; listeners with recorded and live music; and members of the global classical music industry with each other. Uniting Web 2.0 ‘social media’ tools with a vast library of information about composers, performers, works and albums, Dilettante breaks down the barriers to the classical genre and serves a growing audience of more than 10,000 visitors per month. It is the only social network specifically designed for classical music.

Increasingly, the orchestra world is embracing the power of digital media to engage new audiences and promote performances. Dilettante provides orchestras with a range of free tools that complement each organisation’s existing web presence. These include a user-generated events calendar, the ability to upload music to the site’s mp3 player, blog space and editorial features about individual ensembles that interest the Dilettante community. Many larger organisations have already created profiles on Dilettante, such as the Royal Opera House, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, in addition to smaller community ensembles and Youth Orchestras.

Upcoming site features include ticket purchase through the Dilettante events calendar, enhanced shopping tools so users can purchase orchestra recordings, and user reviews of concerts and CDs.

Dilettante would be pleased to hear from your orchestra, please visit www.dilettantemusic.com or call 020 7785 6929.

Friday 24 April, 2009
Royal Commonwealth Society, London

Contributors include:

· Dame Liz Forgan, Chair, Arts Council England
· Sir John Tusa, Chair, University of the Arts
· Cllr Warren Bradley, Leader, Liverpool City Council
· John Knell, Co-Founder, The Intelligence Agency
· Baroness Lola Young, Interim Chief Executive, Bernie Grant Centre
· Anne Bonnar, Recently Transition Director, Creative Scotland
· David Kester, Chief Executive, Design Council
· Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive, Arts and Business
· Prof Gillian Moore, Head of Contemporary Culture, Southbank Centre
· Tom Bewick, Chief Executive, Creative and Cultural Skills
· Minister or Senior Official, DCMS
· Andrew Whyte, Executive Director, Advocacy and Communications, Arts Council England

Issues covered

· How do we continue to achieve world class arts and culture throughout the downturn?
· How do we ensure culture and arts are seen as essential in a recession?
· How should we capitalize on the huge importance of the arts to the UK's position in the world?
· How do we sustain a mixed economy of private and public funding?
· How can culture and arts help revive the economy and underpin regeneration?
· How can business see creativity as the key to future economic success?
· How can creative industries be most successful regionally, nationally and internationally?
· How do we develop creative and cultural skills in young people and adults?
· What can be learned from Cities of Culture and applied elsewhere?
· What are the alternative visions for the future of the arts and culture?
· Where can we expect to be in ten years time?

How to Book

This seminar is being supported by Arts Council England and the attendance fee is just £100.
To see the full programme, speaker biographies, venue information and booking details Click Here
Any problems, please contact Louise Rushworth on 01422 845004 or email louise@cppseminars.org.uk

Arts Council England has published on its website a report by the consultants Cragg Ross Dawson summarising the response to its recent consultation on self-assessment and peer review. You can see the report at www.artscouncil.org.uk/consultation.

The Strad magazine has started a new database to help reunite stringed instrument owners with their prized possessions.

If your stringed instrument has been lost or stolen in the last few months, it’s simple to add your details to the register. Go online at www.thestrad.com/lostandstoleninfo and fill out our form. The information will then appear to the public on our website from May so that readers of The Strad and www.thestrad.com throughout the world can be alert to specific instruments when they surface.

The Strad Lost and Stolen Database is in association with Axa Art.
 

Central Hall Westminster on Thursday 7th May

A special full-day conference is to be held at Central Hall Westminster on Thursday 7th May, addressed by 25 leading experts in charity finance, strategy, fundraising, law and governance. Designed primarily for members of the board – including trustees (especially Chairs and Hon Treasurers), chief executives and finance directors. There are 1200 places, priced to enable several trustees/directors from each charity to attend (£140 for the first place and just £70 for every additional place) and the conference will tackle key questions including:

• How can we reduce costs without jeopardising services?
• Are our investments secure, and are they really performing as well as they should?
• Could we raise more funds from more sources, including major donors?
• Should we form a strategic partnership or merge with another charity?
• How can we use all the talents of the board, and pull together in challenging times?

The event is presented with the help and support of fourteen of the leading organisations in the sector (see brochure) and has been developed by Charity Trustee Networks, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, ACEVO, Stone King Sewell LLP and Action Planning.

There’s a morning plenary session, which includes presentations from Gavyn Davies, top economist and a founder of New Philanthropy Capital and Fulcrum Asset Management, Dame Stephanie Shirley, prolific major donor, Keith Hickey, Chief Executive of CFDG, Stephen Bubb, Chief Executive of ACEVO, Rodney Buse, Chair of Charity Trustee Networks, Michael King, Senior Partner of Stone King Sewell LLP, and Melvin Coleman, UK Finance Director of Amnesty International.

You and your colleagues then have a choice (which you can make on the day) of three afternoon streams:

• Managing charity investments – for Honorary Treasurers, Finance Directors and members of Finance Sub-Committees, and featuring debate on the future of cash, equities, bonds, property, hedge funds and ethical investments with experts from Charles Stanley, CCLA, Morgan Stanley, CAF, Punter Southall and Liongate Capital Management.
• Raising more money from more sources – for trustees/directors seeking an overview of fundraising and featuring David Saint, Robin Thomas and Chris East of Action Planning, David Emerson, Chief Executive of the Association of Charitable Foundations and Jonathan Burchfield, legacies expert at Stone King Sewell LLP.
• Building Board Performance – for Chairs and CEOs and addressing governance, strategic planning, trustee and director recruitment, and restructuring/redundancy programmes - with Rodney Buse, Chair of CTN, Michael King, Senior Partner of Stone King Sewell LLP, Tim Waldron, Director of Management Consultancy at Action Planning, and Adele Bird, HR and Recruitment Director at Action Planning.

Book places online and request invoice, Or book by email

The attendance fee is £140 for the first delegate and £70 for every additional place. You can book online and request an invoice here or email my colleague, Ruth, on rhazlehurst@actionplanning.co.uk or complete the form on the conference brochure.
 

ACEVO’s dedicated recession support website offers practical advice on surviving and leading through the recession. Updated daily, www.recessionsupport.org.uk provides the latest news keeping you up to date on the current economic downturn.

Expert guides, provided by companies such as CCLA and Foster Denovo, can be accessed from the website. This section of the site provides information on:

Surviving a Recession – provided by CCLA
Fundraising in a Recession – provided by International Fundraising Consultancy
Weathering the Storm – provided by Serco

Getting the Most From Your Employee Benefits – provided by Foster Denovo

Finance advice and support is a click away, detailing:

Cost Saving Tips – provided by ACEVO
Maximising Statutory Funding in the Downturn – provided by Action Planning
Fundraising Advice – provided by Charity Consultants
What Worries Staff During the Recession? – provided by Worklife Support

Managing your organisation in the recession is also highlighted - informative articles include:

Cutting Staff Costs – provided by Harrison Rose Ltd
10 Ways to Keep Your Job – provided by Bircham Dyson Bell
Governance Review Service – provided by ACEVO
The CEO Chair Relationship During the Recession – provided by get2thepoint

The first of the Cultural Olympiad’s ten major projects was launched this week. Artists taking the lead, which has been organised in collaboration with Arts Council England, is a competition inviting artists from around the country to pitch ideas for public works of art that “reflect the values and vision” of the Cultural Olympiad, celebrate the UK’s creativity, and that are inspired by their local region.

12 commissions, worth up to £500,000 each, will be awarded, and the winning ideas will be installed in public sites across the country; one in each of the nine English regions, and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

For the Artists taking the lead website, click here.

Arts Council England has published a new briefing that explores the relationship between childhood arts experience and arts engagement patterns in adulthood. The analysis is based on data from the Taking Part adult survey, and is the result of a collaboration between the Arts Council Research team and Dr Tak Wing Chan from the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford.

The analysis confirms that being encouraged to engage in the arts when growing up has a significant impact on the chances of being an active arts consumer as an adult, even when a range of other socio-economic factors have been taken into account. The effect of childhood experience is very strong – almost as strong as the effect of education – suggesting that parents may be as important as the education system in determining whether children grow up to be interested in and engaged with the arts. It also reports on how family background and personal demographics influence the chances that an individual was encouraged by their parents to get involved with the arts.

To download the briefing visit www.artscouncil.org.uk/takingpart.

Music Sales has just launched iNews, exclusively available via email from the Music Sales Group.

For news and updates from Chester Music, Novello and our global catalogue of publishers and composers, sign up today by visiting www.chesternovello.com and register. You can also access a free download sampler featuring 5 tracks of music by our composers from NMC Recordings.

One in seven of the UK population – nine million people – have some degree of hearing loss. Yet within the arts, the subject of deafness and hearing impairment is often sidelined. Is enough being done to provide access for the deaf and hard of hearing to attend arts events? Are arts centres fully equipped to cater for this audience? And what more could be done?

Deafness – no bar to music is a workshop presented by three leading deaf professionals: Paul Whittaker OBE, mezzo-soprano Janine Roebuck and flautist Ruth Montgomery. Aimed at those who work in the arts industry across administration, programming and education, the workshop will offer help, advice and support about how you can better reach the deaf community.

The workshop will include time for targeted discussion and feedback from Paul, Janine and Ruth as well as the opportunity to put your knowledge to the test.

Deafness – no bar to music will be presented in London, Cardiff and Liverpool at the following times:

London:

Friday 24 April

2.00pm to 5.30pm

Level 5 Function Room, Southbank Centre, London, SE1

Cardiff:

Wednesday 27 May

1.30pm to 5.00pm

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, CF10

Liverpool:

Friday 5 June

1.30pm to 5.00pm

Garden Room, The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1

BSL interpreters will be provided for every workshop and access will be provided by Vee Limited. Workshops are free however numbers are strictly limited. Application Forms can be downloaded below along with more information.

Download the Information Sheet

Download the Application Form

View the webpage

Deafness – no bar to music is presented by Hear Here! in partnership with Music and the Deaf and Vee Limited.

Worcester Cathedral - Friday 1st May 2009, 7.30pm

 
Worcester Cathedral was the venue of Vernon Handleys last ever performance in April 2008, a tribute to the late Eric Dickinson, which fittingly concluded with Bax's Northern Ballade No 3, chosen by Handley in celebration of a life well lived. It is for this reason that the English Symphony Orchestra will be performing a concert in commemoration of their former Principal Conductor at this venue, featuring some of his long-time working companions such as Michael George (baritone), Ian Tracey (organ) and Laura Jellicoe (conductor). 

The programme includes:

Bliss Fanfare

Elgar Cockaigne Overture

Finzi Let Us Garlands Bring

Vaughan Williams Job A Masque for Dancing

Click here for booking details and ticket prices.

Simon Funnell has formally taken over from Antony Lewis-Crosby as Managing Director of the London Mozart Players.  We wish Antony well in his retirement.