Wales: The land of song – but for how much longer?

Dame Shirley Bassey, Sir Tom Jones and Bonnie Tyler are just some of the musicians to have called Wales their home.

This week, the talents of the land of song are on full display at one of Europe‘s largest music and poetry festivals, the National Eisteddfod.

But concerns have been raised about the future of the country’s arts sector due to funding cuts.

Proposals from the Welsh National Opera (WNO) would see its orchestra made part-time and musicians’ pay cut by 15 per cent.

More than 11,000 people have signed a petition calling for the proposals to be scrapped.

‘Can we not save these jobs?’

Llinos Owen, 42, has been sub-principal bassoon at the orchestra since 2022.

Originally from Pwllheli in Gwynedd, Ms Owen was excited about returning to live in Wales.

But she told Sky News she might now have to move elsewhere to continue her career.

“I’m off to Glasgow next week to do an audition for a position up there because there’s not enough freelance work in Cardiff,” she said.

“It’s not like living in London, or the Leeds-Manchester corridor or between Glasgow and Edinburgh where there is a lot of freelance work and more full-time bands that need freelancers.

“In Cardiff, it’s not going to be sustainable for all the members of the orchestra to be able to make up that shortfall in income with more playing work locally.”

Wales’s reputation as the land of song was “hugely” at risk amid cuts to the arts sector, according to Ms Owen.

“Wales, the land of song, such a musical nation, is being left as a kind of cultural desert by a huge under-funding,” she added.

Ms Owen said she wanted the Welsh government to “unlock some emergency funding” to help retain the orchestra at its current capacity.

She added: “Can we not save these jobs until there’s a brighter future on the horizon?”

Naomi Pohl, general secretary of the Musicians’ Union (MU), told Sky News the union was “very concerned” and urged the Welsh government to listen to its members and “step in”.

“The shortfall in funding isn’t enormous in the context of Wales’s overall budget for arts and culture but the impact is going to be very significant,” she said.

“When you have new governments, you have new ministers, there’s always an opportunity that somebody will see it differently and hopefully make that change.”

A Welsh government spokesperson said it had “acted to mitigate the full scale of the budget pressures” on the arts sector, but had to prioritise funding “core public services” such as the NHS.

Cuts seen as ‘inevitable’

Members of MU last month voted in favour of potential strike action. The WNO said it was “disappointed” at the outcome but respected the decision.

It added it had sustained funding cuts and had to make changes to ensure it remained “financially sustainable into the future”.

A spokesperson said colleagues were being supported through the process which they said was “inevitable” due to the savings the company needed to make.

“We are committed to ensuring our long-term future as Wales’s national opera company,” they added.

Sky News approached the Arts Council of Wales for its response but no one was available.

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‘We have to prove we’re the land of song’

Elsewhere, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) announced last month that its junior conservatoire provision would come to an end.

David Ingham, 18, from Swansea, has been a student at the conservatoire for several years.

He said the musical education on offer was something “you can’t get in a school”.

“Going to a junior conservatoire, it makes it so much easier for [young people] to go to a conservatoire for further study because it’s the same sort of education,” he said.

“We might be the land of song, but we have to prove it. We have to have those opportunities.

“Music should be a really important part of our society, and it has been for so many years traditionally. But I think it possibly isn’t so much anymore.

“And it’s just deeply unfair that if you live in London, you have five options for where you’d like to go to study music as a teen or as a child, and in Wales you will now have none.”

‘The arts scene is on life support’

Bryony Black, 46, is a parent of one of the children who attended the junior conservatoire.

Her 15-year-old son, Solomon, who had a bursary to attend, was working towards grade eight on the violin.

“Unfortunately, the impact on the future of where he is going to go with this is quite dramatic. We don’t really know quite what we’re going to do yet,” she said.

“As far as alternative conservatoire provision, we’re really looking at Birmingham or London and then even with a possible bursary, we’re still looking at hugely increased travel costs. Plus, the additional time that it takes when you’re considering that he was already doing a six-hour day.”

While not being felt for a few years, Ms Black, who lives in Blaenau Gwent, said the impact on emerging professional musicians in Wales would be “drastic”.

“The arts is always the one that takes the first hit but it’s gone from tightening the belt to putting new notches in it and it’s just going to die,” she said.

“There needs to be not just a revival, but it’s like the whole arts scene is on life support at the moment.”

Ms Black said there had been “no fight” from within the college to negotiate with the government and to try to secure the provision’s future.

The RWCMD said in a statement that it had not taken the decision to end its weekend youth provision “lightly”.

A spokesperson for the college said a statutory staff consultation was held due to the “challenging financial context currently affecting higher education institutions”.

They added that the current model of weekly activity was “financially unsustainable” but that they would “continue to deliver sustainable project work” for under 18s and have kept the Welsh government “fully briefed” as new proposals are developed.

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The Welsh government said the country’s culture, arts and sports institutions were “an integral part of our society and wellbeing”.

“With an investment totalling £13m between 2022 to 2025, our National Music Service ensures that all young people aged 3-16 are able to access music activities, including instrument and vocal tuition,” the government added.

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