It’s been an amazing weekend seeing Philip Sawyers‘ new oratorio Mayflower on the Sea of Time come to life. Huge congrats to Philip S and to librettist Philip Groom for a piece that blew the roof off Worcester Cathedral. The word I keep coming back to is ‘thrilling’. It was. I’ll be provocative and say I think it’s the most exciting, well written, moving, beautiful and compelling celebratory British choral work since Belshazzar’s Feast, and it’s got more substance than the Walton (fantastic as it is).

Huge thanks and congrats to Anne Renshaw and Neil Ferris for getting this project going, and for commissioning the work for the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower in 2020. It’s so unfair that the planned premieres at the Three Choirs Festival and in Worcester Cathedral didn’t happen due to the pandemic. Neil, you missed out, buddy! I’m sorry.

It looked often like a performance might never happen, such has been the challenge of finding a new choir that could tackle such a massive work, venues, etc. Even once we had committed to last night’s date, there’s been challenge after challenge. I must say a HUGE thank you to Noriko Tsuzaki, who is always there for the ESO when challenges arise, for stepping in at the last moment to help fix the choir.

In the end, not only did we get a choir, we got the BEST choir. Every single member of the newly-invented “English Symphony Orchestra Chorus” brought supreme technique, a joyful attitude, endless reserves of energy and vocal strength, and tremendous musicianship. The name of the ensemble was well chosen, because the musicians of the English Symphony Orchestra have taught me that if you get the best musicians/the nicest people to come along, everything works brilliantly. The same can and should be said about our soloist April Fredrick and Tom Humphreys (Tom learned the massive role in 9 days!). They were incredible.

And I just can’t overstate how grateful I am to the musicians in this orchestra. I’ve loved ever concert this year. Having Seb Lovell-Huckle in the role of CEO has been great on every level, too – I feel like I’ve got a creative partner and someone who is there for all of us, even in difficult times.

This was our season finale, and it was fitting to end with a concert that included such an exciting Dvorak 9 (at least I thought it was exciting!) and an hour-long world premiere. That’s very ESO – doing historical works with a sense of freshness and discovery and new works with a sense of deep respect. I’m reminded of the premiere of Robert Saxton’s symphony, Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh. After that concert, a long-time Gramophone critic told me the Mendelssohn 3 on the 2nd half was the best he’d heard in years, maybe ever. Likewise, the gala at the Elgar Festival 2 weeks ago – the orchestra made Micheal Berkeley‘s incredibly virtuosic Secret Garden sound pretty easy, and then another leading composer at the concert described the Elgar 1 on the 2nd half as the “finest live Elgar 1 I’ve ever heard.” The musicians are just incredible these days. And I’m not just stroking my ego -it brings me to my next point:

Of course, now we come back to earth and remember that the orchestra is currently without Arts Council funding.

We’ve cancelled the rest of our self-promoted concerts for the summer. A new application can take 4 months to get an answer these days, and there’s no guarantee it will be successful. I remain hopeful and determined (we all do), but I don’t actually know when I will next see these wonderful friends and colleagues.

We’ll re-apply, we’ll approach other funders, but this orchestra deserves to know its future is secure. Our growing and enthusiastic audience deserves to know their orchestra will be there for them next month and next year. The 1.4 million people in our 3-county home territory (a territory which includes the birthplaces of both Holst and Elgar) surely ought to have one well-established professional orchestra based in the region. It doesn’t help that the only real concert hall between Birmingham and Bristol (Cheltenham Town Hall) is shutting down its classical concert series next year.

Parents in Elgar Country deserve to know their kids will be able to attend our courses and see their friends. We shouldn’t have to get to the end of every funding cycle desperately worried that even with an application with all positive evaluations (such as the one which just failed), we might end up with nothing. NOTHING. Which is what we’ve got now.

It sucks. It sucks, it sucks, it sucks.

It sucks.