“It’s a resonant moment of European cultural harmony: a Swedish soprano and a pan-European orchestra rehearsing a Bach cantata in a medieval English church,” writes Jill Lawless in a Tuesday (3/28) Associated Press report. “With Britain about to leave the European Union, it’s also a poignant one…. The European Union Baroque Orchestra … founded 32 years ago … has been based in the countryside near Oxford, each year assembling some 20 young musicians from across the continent and sending them on international tour. Now, because of Brexit, it …will move its office and legal base to Antwerp, Belgium, so that it will still be in the EU once Britain quits the bloc in 2019…. Said the orchestra’s British director-general, Paul James …, ‘The top stars … have secretaries and assistants who can fill in forms for them for work permits and visas and so on…. For the average jobbing musician who will be a freelance, it’s going to be very difficult for them to get work.’ … The London-based European Union Youth Orchestra has drawn up contingency plans to move…. Meanwhile, the EU Baroque Orchestra is completing its final season as a U.K.-based ensemble.’ ”
Posted March 31, 2017
