Simon Webb: ‘We do need to ask ourselves how we can better reflect the communities that our members serve’

Congratulations on your election as chair of the ABO – and what a time to take over! What do you think are the main challenges facing the orchestral sector at the moment, and what will be your priorities going into the new year? 

The twin challenges of the pandemic and Brexit are putting unprecedented pressure on colleagues throughout the orchestral sector, and this is of course replicated not just throughout the cultural sector in the UK but across all industries and communities.

As a sector we have become adjusted to coping with the immediate impacts of the pandemic. The resilience and creativity throughout the orchestral community is something we should all be very proud of.

The two major challenges relating to the pandemic are around navigating our return to full orchestral performance. They are a) the financial challenge; and b) the terrible impact the pandemic has had on the freelance musician community. The financial challenge relates to audiences and the income so many orchestras rely on from attendance at live events and also to funders and how precious income streams have had to be repurposed into survival funds. How the people and the money are redirected in to creating great performances in our venues for our audiences will be a challenge we will face together and energetically, the commitment and enthusiasm for great orchestral performance is undimmed by the current crisis.

How we respond to the crisis in the freelance community is something that is very close to all of our hearts. We depend on our brilliant freelance colleagues and have largely found ourselves unable to support our friends and colleagues to the extent we would have wished as our focus has been so much on our own survival. This is a painful truth for many of us. The ABO’s role in supporting orchestras in their return to full scale operations is also supporting the freelance sector that is so fundamental to our excellence collectively and individually.

The challenges relating to Brexit are well articulated across the economy and across the cultural industries. For orchestras the financial and administrative burdens for international touring are becoming clearer but are still not entirely resolved. And there are questions over the impact Brexit may have on recruitment of international students to our world-class conservatoires which could have a knock-on effect on recruitment to orchestras. With so much touring either cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic we have not been able to test this new world in a practical sense, and even with trade agreements coming to fruition we may not have clear answers to some of these issues for some weeks yet so the ABO’s role in lobbying and advocating on our members’ behalf is of great importance and a real focus currently.

Orchestras have proven themselves to be adaptable and resourceful as a result of the challenges posed by Covid. Do you think there are any lessons from this year the sector can take forward?

The biggest lesson for us all is to remember just how strong the sector is. Orchestras are always resourceful and adaptable and we have demonstrated that brilliantly during this awful year. A community of musicians is always a vibrantly creative place and our orchestras are exactly that. At the BBC Philharmonic all of our creative responses to the pandemic were driven by the musicians, and this was the case across all orchestras. Let’s never lose sight of the reality that an orchestra is a room full of creative energy and find ways of enabling our musicians to fulfil their creative brilliance. If that is the lesson we all learn, musicians and managers, from this then the orchestral sector will come out of this crisis with a creative energy that will allow us all to thrive.

What are you looking forward to most about your new role as ABO chair? 

I am particularly looking forward to the governance review. I’ve been a board member of a number or different organisations over my years in the orchestral world and have learnt from colleagues on those boards about the importance of good governance. The orchestral sector needs a strong ABO, we have an excellent executive team and I am fortunate to have an energetic and committed board to work with. Strong governance will allow Mark and his team to offer the best support to the sector. It is essential that we at the ABO demonstrate best practice in our governance. The opportunity to address questions around diversity and representation in particular, and to establish the habit of a regular reflection on our own governance within the ABO is something I am already enjoying.

Can you explain a bit more about the governance review?

It is good practice for an organisation to reflect on its own governance, and that is something we are undertaking now at the ABO. The ABO is very well run and the board has worked with Mark and his team very effectively for some years now, but we do need to ask ourselves how we can better reflect the communities that our members serve, whether we can represent our membership in different ways within our governance, and whether we have the best recruitment processes for our nominated board members from within the membership and for our co-opted board members. A working group from the board presented the first part of this review process to the AGM in November, and advertising for new co-opted members started in December. One-to-ones with each current board member, and a board ‘away day’ in February will form the major piece of work, and the review will be led by Charlotte Jones, CEO of the Independent Theatre Council. We will report at the ABO conference in March. We hope to fill the two vacancies for co-opted board members ahead of the board away-day in February and the two vacancies for nominated members at an EGM a month or so after conference.