When most people think of classical music, they think of peace, not protest.
Often associated with the traditional establishment, the genre is more likely to conjure up images of white-gloved conductors and elderly patrons dozing in the front row than of riot police and guerrilla demonstrations.
This season, however, that has changed. Following continent-wide public arts cuts, Europe has been swept with passionate, genuinely angry demonstrations by classical musicians and those who appreciate them, putting music in the news like never before. With riots outside Milan's La Scala opera house and classical protest mobs popping up across the UK, music fans are finding a new, militant voice.
But why exactly are classical music lovers so angry? And can their protests have any effect in an era of general downturn and civil strife?
Whatever the answer, the protesters are certainly making themselves heard. On December 7, La Scala was rocked by furious demonstrations by arts workers before a performance attended by Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano. While only a small splinter group locked horns with riot police, their anger was matched by many on the other side of the police lines.
Commenting from the podium, the visiting conductor Daniel Barenboim stated: "I am speaking on behalf of all my colleagues who play, sing, dance and work - not only in this magnificent theatre - to say how much we are worried about the future of culture in this country and Europe." His words were met with loud applause, even from Napolitano himself.
While angry demonstrations are perhaps something of a way of life among Italians, Europeans with a more traditionally restrained demeanour have also been taking their protests on to the streets. In October, the central station concourse in The Hague was taken over by a classical flash mob of musicians who risked losing their livelihoods, highlighting their plight to the public by cropping up out of nowhere to play the Mambo from Bernstein's West Side Story (they also delivered a petition to parliament).
And in normally muted Britain, copycat flash mobs calling themselves "guerrilla orchestras" have performed impromptu in cities across the UK this month, protesting against the abolition or slashing of funding for music education. There's a palpable sense of resistance across the musical profession. As Heather Bird, a double bassist, music teacher and the mastermind behind the UK protests comments: "There is definitely a new attitude around - talking to people in major orchestras, there's so much strength of feeling, so much intensity. People are willing to protest in all sorts of new ways they would never have done before."
Responsible for this new spirit is a wave of drastic arts cuts throughout Europe. Despite having grand opera as one of its most famous cultural icons, Italy is cutting government grants for musicians by 37 per cent, making life all but untenable for many institutions and ensembles. In Holland, meanwhile, the authorities have gone even further, proposing to close the respected Netherlands Broadcasting Music Centre altogether, kissing goodbye to four of the country's leading musical ensembles in one fell swoop.And in Britain, it's the proposed slashing of funding for music education, in some cases to the extent of abolition, that is causing the most anguish. Music colleges are in danger of losing their funding altogether, meaning that many of them face closure, while some local authorities have already axed all musical instrument teaching in schools.
These cuts make for grim reading, but for some supporters of austerity measures, they are justified. Wouldn't it be ironic in a period of economic depression, the argument goes, to protect funding for art forms most commonly associated with the prosperous? However, the protesters' response seems to be that, by introducing cuts, governments will turn the specious association of classical music with wealth into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
At present, classical music remains an affordable art form - tickets at London's Barbican Hall, for example, start at around Dh45 - while many ensembles are heavily involved in programmes designed to reach out to new audiences. As Jules Buckley, the organiser of The Hague's flash mob (and visiting conductor at Holland's threatened Metropole Orchestra) points out, it's often the most non-elitist ensembles that are cut.
"The Metropole Orchestra has been nominated for three Grammy awards this year for jazz and pop, it's worked with people like Basement Jaxx and Antony and the Jonsons - how can you say that's elitist? If you cut funds and abolish what is literally the only ensemble of its kind in the world, you just won't get that culture back."
If support is slashed, many fear that only the wealthy will have the means to afford non-subsidised concerts, while musicians working outside establishment venues will be especially likely to fall by the wayside. As Bird points out, slashing music funding is also likely to limit access to music for anyone in the next generation who doesn't have high-earning parents, a point that touches on another contentious issue in the UK at the moment, the question of university tuition fees.
"I went to the Royal Northern College of Music," she says, "and there's no way I would have been able to go if I'd had to pay fees. I had free double bass lessons as a kid and would not have been able to play or attend subsidised youth orchestra courses if I'd have had to pay for them. So I would not have been doing what I love today, or teaching kids to do the same. In five or six years' time if these cuts go ahead, we just won't have enough players to do something like the guerrilla orchestras any more."
Classical music lovers' newly strident public voice is no isolated phenomenon, of course - it's part of a general mood of resentment against Europe-wide austerity programmes. While the need for some public spending cuts is widely acknowledged, many people feel that the public at large is being punished for the mistakes of bankers perceived as the recipients of lavish state subsidies through bailouts. The now relatively impoverished public who have paid off the banks' debts are expected to see their own cultural lives decimated for a generation, all in the name of common sense.
At the more conservative end of the political spectrum, there is also concern that music cuts will damage Europe's international standing. While still one of the world's wealthiest and most productive areas, Western Europe is increasingly being challenged by other regions. China and the US overshadow it politically while the Middle and Far East are currently both more economically dynamic.
What Western Europe does possess, however, is a cultural infrastructure unrivalled elsewhere in the world. With music, theatre and art subsidised at high levels, the region remains eminently attractive to companies looking for good living conditions for their employees. If you cut funding to the arts, then the region risks losing one of its unique selling points.
Even taking these plausible arguments on board, there's no denying that protecting music funding is a hard sell in times of general cutbacks. Indeed, it's possible that governments selected the sector for cuts because it was seen as a relatively soft, undefended target. It is perhaps surprising then that the current wave of protests is proving quite effective. Footage of The Hague's flash mob demonstration became a YouTube hit and helped create a wave of criticism that made the Dutch government back down, agreeing to keep the Netherlands Broadcast Music Centre open, though cutting its funding by a still drastic half.
In Britain, meanwhile, coverage for the guerrilla orchestras has seen the anti-music cuts movement grow rapidly, with another much larger (and peaceful) flash mob concert planned for the near future.
Despite general frustration among Europe's musicians, the new classical protest movement remains a largely decorous affair. In Holland, Buckley insists: "There's simply no point in putting on anything but a positive demonstration." And in the UK the guerrilla orchestras' performances of the Mission: Impossible soundtrack are unlikely to provoke a police baton charge just yet.
Nonetheless, the message behind the demonstrations is pointed enough: if governments starve European classical music and music education of support, they can't take it for granted that their countries' musical excellence will survive on its own.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
THE LOWDOWN
Photograph
Rating: 4/5
Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies
Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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More on Quran memorisation:
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
