The principal of Scotland's leading acting and music school, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), has joined a campaign to save an acclaimed youth orchestra.
Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, principal of the RCS in Glasgow, is among five leading principals from talent schools across the UK expressing their support of the European Union Youth Orchestra, which has said it will close at the end of the summer because of the end of EU funding.
The orchestra, celebrating its fortieth year as a cultural ambassador for the EU, said it will have to cease operations from September.
In the new letter to Jean-Clauded Juncker, president of the EC and Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, signed by Professor Sharkey, the principals say: "The Principals of the Royal Schools of Music and the Chief Executive of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) have come together to issue a strong endorsement of the importance of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and to issue an urgent request to the European Commission to restore EU core funding to enable the Orchestra to survive.
"The EUYO represents one of the pinnacles of arts education and performance.
"It has provided students from throughout Europe the opportunity to make music at the highest level, to create lasting bonds between participants and to create a vibrant and visceral approach to music making.
"The EUYO is one of the great cultural ambassadors of Europe.
"Some of our finest students and staff have contributed to the EUYO and the faculties of conservatoires in the UK and throughout Europe have been greatly enhanced by its former members."
They add: "At a time when the very ideals of cohesion and collaboration across Europe are under duress, we believe the EUYO to be an inspiration for young musicians everywhere and to be far more than a showpiece of artistic attainment."
The EUYO counts among its members performers from all 28 EU member states and has been conducted by a host of maestros, including Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert von Karajan and its founder, Claudio Abbado.
It was established by a resolution of the European parliament in 1976.
In a statement, the EUYO said: "The EUYO was informed on 15 April 2016 that its Creative Europe partnership is no longer in receipt of any funding from the EU.
"Since that time the orchestra has been in regular contact with the EU to attempt to find alternative funding from the EU. "However the funding routes so far suggested by the EU do not allow the orchestra to plan any form of secure future."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here