• Share on Facebook
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by email
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by email

The relationship between the professional, semi-professional and voluntary arts sectors is one of mutual inter-dependence, and it?s important that arts professionals recognise the value of their amateur colleagues to the wider arts sector. Duncan Barker explains why.

Everyone has to start somewhere. This is as true for the arts as it is for any walk of life. Many of us will remember the first tentative steps we took to becoming involved in the arts, whether this was joining a local choir or orchestra, stepping out for the first time at a local dance class, or plucking up the courage to tread the boards in a school or community theatre production. It is from this small and informal starting point that we decide if we want to continue with our involvement and at what level, whether it is amateur, semi-professional or professional.

The support system also works in reverse. Few professional arts organisations can now say that they are not supported in some way by the voluntary sector; this support takes many direct and indirect forms. In the case of music performance, amateurs will almost certainly make up a good proportion of the audiences for professional concerts, they probably subscribe to 'friends' schemes and often, as is the case with most major orchestras, the more adventurous amateur singers will provide musical support as part of the chorus for key works in the musical repertoire. It is worth remembering, of course, that many of these key works were originally commissioned by groups of amateurs and even today, without amateur support, these works would rarely be performed. Professional arts organisations are increasingly fostering greater links with amateur groups in order to enhance their activities and provide greater access at every level.

Creating partnerships

An organisation such as Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies, is central to enabling many of the partnerships that span the professional-amateur sector divide. As a membership body for around 2,000 amateur music groups across the UK comprising 138,000 people, much of Making Music?s work is taken up with providing information, training and administrative services for this large constituency. In doing so, many of the things we undertake for our members has an equal, if not greater, benefit for the professional sector. For example, if we help a group with information on searching for and employing a musical director, then a professional musician will be employed as a result. If we provide reference materials on music suitable for performance by amateurs, then a music publisher will benefit either through their hire library or a retail outlet and professional soloists will be employed to lead the performance (not to mention the freelance musicians in the accompanying orchestra). If we provide training on how to improve marketing skills for amateur groups, then potentially designers, printers, arts marketing agencies, and new venues will benefit. All of these relationships, and more, between amateur music groups and the wider music profession are central to how the sector as a whole works and interacts on a daily basis.

At the end of 2001 Making Music undertook a statistical survey of its members in order to gauge the health, wealth and breadth of their activities. Following on from a similar exercise undertaken two years ago, the Making Music Membership Survey 2002 has confirmed the importance amateur music?s interaction with the professional music sector. Members of Making Music promote a total of 8,093 concerts in a typical year or, putting it another way, nearly 160 concerts a week. Since the most popular night for concerts by performing groups is Saturday night, for the obvious reasons of rehearsal and time commitment, over half of the 8,093 concerts take place on no more than 50 nights in any one year. Furthermore, these concerts provide no fewer than 29,000 engagements for individual professional artists in each year (a string quartet would count as four separate engagements, though they are acting as one ensemble). In terms of financial contribution to the professional sector, amateur music groups spend just under £8.9m on professional artists and £916,500 with music publishers in a typical year.

Working together

So far we have looked at the ongoing mutual benefits that exist between the amateur and professional music sectors; there are also some areas in which the two sectors are working closely together for common aims.

A year ago, Making Music approached the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) to discuss ways in which the two organisations could collaborate, representing as they do the interests of amateur and professional orchestras. The resulting initiative was the joint promotion of National Orchestra Week in March 2002, an initiative that the ABO had been running independently for its members for a number of years. Although the main objective of National Orchestra Week is to raise the profile of live orchestral music throughout the UK, there are also opportunities for collaboration between professional and amateur groups in the pursuit of this goal. One of the most obvious opportunities is joint performances, but this is often easier said than done due to the scarcity of repertoire that is suitable for pro-am performance. Next year, however, will see the performance and broadcast of ?Tandem? by Bob Chilcott by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Kensington Symphony Orchestra. Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 at the request of Making Music, Tandem promises to be an extraordinary musical experience; it draws together the strengths and flexibility of both professional and amateur orchestras to produce a performance that is collaborative rather than led by one side or the other.

Situated at the crossover between the amateur and professional sectors, Making Music is always on the look out for opportunities to bring the two sectors together and explore their commonalities and ways they can work together. In September we have been given the opportunity to examine some of the key elements in this relationship in the form of a one-day conference in Edinburgh at which speakers from across the music profession will share their experiences of working with amateurs. Aimed at professional delegates, this conference follows on from a similar successful event Making Music promoted in London in April 2000 and brings with it a Scottish view of the two sectors.

What we cannot do in an overview such as this is address the motivations of amateur musicians for whom performing music on a regular basis is often a major contribution to their quality of life - these are people who have been practising lifelong learning before the term was even coined. They are also people who took their first tentative steps in exactly the same way as many professionals but for whatever reason have gone down a different route. We must never underestimate the quality, enthusiasm, and commitment they bring to the arts.


Duncan Barker is Marketing & Development Manager for Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies e: duncan@makingmusic.org.uk
Details of the Making Music Membership Survey and the Edinburgh conference on September 20 are available from Making Music t: 0870 872 3300; w: http://www.makingmusic.org.uk