Association of British Orchestras

General information

The ABO was founded in 1947 as the Orchestral Employers Association, primarily to negotiate with the Musicians Union and other bodies on behalf of its membership, which consisted almost entirely at that time of those orchestras receiving annual funding from the newly established Arts Council of Great Britain. In 1982 the Association took on company status and became the Association of British Orchestras. The Association’s negotiating function was reduced considerably in 1989, when the contract orchestras ceased to negotiate collectively.

Under the inspirational leadership of Libby MacNamara, the ABO developed during the 1990s in other areas, expanding its role as a development agency for the orchestral sector. Highlights of this period included the ABO’s national education project The Turn of the Tide in 1993, which encouraged the development of education programmes within orchestras; The Missing Rungs, a training programme for orchestra managers seeking advancement to senior management level; and National Orchestras Week, a profile-raising national event that took place each Spring.

With the end of various sponsorship agreements, staff illness and an over-stretched office, the new director, Russell Jones, appointed in 2002, had to oversee a contraction in activities and take steps to restore the ABO’s finances. Funding to clear the accumulated deficit was granted from Arts Council England’s Stabilisation programme and in 2004 the ABO became a Regularly Funded Organisation of Arts Council England, enabling it to return to a complement of three full-time members of staff.

A new Director, Mark Pemberton, was appointed in July 2007 and the programme of activity continued with the same complement of staff. Following a decade of support from our landlords Shaftesbury plc, the ABO moved into new premises at SOLT/TMA’s premises in Covent Garden in October 2011, where it has access to a suite of meeting rooms and has generated more effective ways of working. In February 2012 a consortium led by the ABO was awarded £1.1 million for a three year Family Friendly Arts campaign, and a Campaign Manager commenced employment in May 2012.

Various initiatives have been generated between 2002 and 2012:

• The ABO’s advocacy role, in particular in relation to the threatened imposition of Class 1 NI for freelance musicians and the carrying of instruments on planes, is widely cited as a success and of value to the membership. Between 2009 and 2011 the ABO invested in a communications campaign, using increased subscription income and drawing on reserves, which saw the publication of briefings and film clips and an increased presence in national and trade media. The objective of the campaign was to influence the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review, and the DCMS’s decision to restrict cuts to ACE “frontline” organisations to 15%, and the subsequent settlement for orchestras, opera and ballet companies, which saw them all retained as National Portfolio Organisations, could be judged to have been a positive result of the campaign.
• An All Party Parliamentary Classical Music Group was launched in 2009 and has held a number of meetings, with varying levels of attendance. It was re-invigorated in 2010 by a new chairman, leading to increased attendance.
• Listen Up!, the joint celebration of British orchestras developed by the ABO, BBC Radio 3 and Making Music which replaced National Orchestras Week, took place in 2004 and 2006. The ABO actively engaged in plans for Music Nation in March 2012, a Countdown Event for the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. This again generated positive support for a regular celebration of British orchestras, both professional and amateur.
• The Healthy Orchestra Charter was launched with a fanfare in 2006, generated a head of steam, but then needed work to sustain interest from orchestras. The Charter was re-launched in 2011 with reduced financial support from the Musicians Benevolent Fund. The board has agreed to shift funding for the Charter to the ABO Trust.
• During 2006 the ABO launched the Management Academy, a dedicated leadership training programme for chief executives and senior managers. This unfortunately generated less interest from members than expected and there are no plans to repeat it.
• The Early Years Cluster Programme 2006-2009, funded by Youth Music, and coordinated by the ABO, involved partnerships between professional orchestras, music organisations, Surestart Children’s Centres and Music Services in 8 different locations throughout England. The Programme explored the impact of live music-making on children aged 0 – 5 years, and enabled the professional development of professional musicians and early years practitioners working together in an action-research programme. Several orchestras have continued work in this area, and in 2011 the ABO participated in Youth Music’s Spotlightling Programme, a process for enabling the sharing of practice to raise standards and the many different approaches for supporting children and young people’s music making.

The Association has a tradition of mounting research initiatives, with a series of important industry reports being produced, such as a comprehensive statistical survey of the UK's orchestral profession, Knowing the Score, and the highly influential report on noise damage to musicians, A Sound Ear, with its follow-up, A Sound Ear II, published in 2008. In 2009 it published Live The Experience, which mapped the provision of live concert experiences for children during their time at school, followed by a mapping of provision in Scotland, funded by Creative Scotland. An evaluation project funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation led to the publication of Making the Difference by Annabel Jackson, Evaluation Consultant, and a training course for education personnel. The ABO’s partnership with industry green body Julie’s Bicycle led to the publication in 2010 of the Green Orchestras Guide and Moving Arts: managing the carbon impacts of our touring - Volume 2: Orchestras.

The past decade has seen a substantial development in the organisation in terms of its membership, including the addition of youth ensembles in 2010. Membership now stand at 183, comprising 65 Full Members, 18 Associate Members, 32 Youth Ensembles, 31 Affiliate Members, 28 Corporate Members and 9 Individual Members. Its role has expanded to include a diverse range of activities designed to support the development of the UK's orchestral life. Building on the success of the annual conference, the ABO now has an extensive programme of specialist managers meetings, seminars and training events.

The ABO website, launched in 1997, was re-designed in 2008 and has grown substantially to incorporate information and contact details of all member organisations, in addition to information about the ABO itself and its activities. The ABO has also implemented a social media strategy, generating over 5000 followers on Twitter.