This month we rounded off our Spring series of Specialist Managers' Meetings with meetings of Opera & Ballet and Marketing managers, and held our first Brass Tacks of the season on Finance for Non-Finance Managers. The ABO also met with or attended the following on our members' behalf: Dick Hallam; Charlotte Jones, ITC; Annie Williams, Holy Trinity School; Rikard Gateau; Dr John White and Dr Bronwen Ackermann; Darren Henley, Classic FM; Public Affairs Network; ArtsCom; National Music Council; Mayor of London's Music Education Strategy Steering Group; Keys to the Future/Arts Inform seminar; Let's Work Together conference; IAMA drinks reception; Musicians Benevolent Fund AGM; and the UK Border Agency Arts & Entertainment Taskforce. Mark was prosecution counsel in the trial of St Cecilia at the Music Publishers Association AGM - in spite of his best efforts she was, thankfully, found not guilty on all charges.

We also attended an open day at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's new building; ENO Summer Celebration; performances by the Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Ensemble, Damnation of Faust at the ENO, and Don Giovanni and Die Meistersinger at Glyndebourne; and the New London Orchestra Music and Literacy Project showcase.

This season's Specialist Managers' Meetings have now come to a close. All reports have been approved and are available to download from the Members Area of the ABO website.

Many dates for the autumn series of these meetings have been set and are waiting for you to check out on the Events page of our website. As details are firmed up for the outstanding meetings the website will be updated. If you or your colleagues would like to attend any of our events, please log on to the Members' Area  of the ABO website and click through the relevant meeting title to book a place.

If you have any ideas for topics or speakers that you would like to be considered for meeting agendas please email orla@abo.org.uk .

It's not too late to book your place on our remaining Brass Tacks courses! If you need to improve or learn new skills, why not join us at LSO St. Luke's London for the following training events: 
 
All that you ever wanted to know about fundraising but were afraid to ask! - Tuesday 5 July
Course leader Sarah Gee is co-founder and Managing Partner of Indigo Ltd, a marketing and fundraising consultancy working with arts and heritage organisations to help them unlock the value of their audiences and visitors. She has previously worked as a marketeer and fundraiser for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the ABO itself.
Course time & venue: 10 am - 5 pm at LSO St Luke’s, London.

Introduction to Press & PR - Thursday 7 July
Course leader Kate Whyman, a freelance PR consultant specializing in music and the arts. Her client list includes BBC Radio 3, Cadogan Hall, London Mozart Players, Mayor of London, British Arts Festival Association, Festival and Events International, The Old Market and Brighton Festival of World Sacred Music.
Course time & venue: 9.45am - 4.30pm at LSO St Luke's, London.

If you are interested in attending either of the above training courses and would like to find out more or book your place, please visit the Brass Tacks section of our website at least 1.5 days before each event. Prices start at £90 for members to attend and remember there are discounts available for multiple delegate bookings for the same course.

Congratulations to Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and Roy McEwan, Managing Director of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, who were awarded a CBE and OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours respectively.

BREAKING - As we go to press with this month's Update Jeremy Hunt is announcing a new £55m scheme which aims to boost endowments for arts and heritage organisations. The scheme will see an independent advisory panel, chaired by former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo, review applications and bids in a match funding arrangement. Around 50 organisations are expected to benefit. The announcement today includes £20m of new money from the Heritage Lottery Fund with the rest taken from funds already announced by the DCMS. 

You can read the full press release and Jeremy Hunt's speech here

The BBC has announced Music Nation, a weekend of live music events taking place across the UK on 3 & 4 March 2012, with related performances and community activities in the week leading up to it. The BBC is the lead project partner for Music Nation and will broadcast many of the events live on Radio 3.

For the full press release, please click here.

Be a part of your industry with Classical Music Magazine and receive:

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This month, get 6 issues for just £1! This offer is valid to ABO members until the end of July, so to benefit from this fantastic offer, please choose one of the following options:

OPTION 1: Call 01371 851892 and quote CM641
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* Offer available to UK customers with UK addresses paying by direct debit or continuous credit card. £1 offer covers first 6 issues, after which a discounted rate of £53 for the remaining 18 issues will be payable. Regular UK price £102.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was, and remains, Britain’s greatest Black classical music composer but until this last year there has been no formally constituted organisation to celebrate his legacy and take forward his reputation. This is what the SCT Foundation, a Community Interest Company, seeks now to do.

1st September 2012 marks the centenary of Coleridge-Taylor’s death. The SCTF is therefore already working to ensure that the 2012-13 concert season includes as much of his music as possible. (There are some 100 opus and un-numbered compositions: a full list of Works is available on the SCTF website: www.sctf.org.uk/works) Not all SCT’s work is however yet easily available, or even in a format which enables performance. We have therefore developed an idea whereby ‘time share’ arrangements can be made for difficult-to-obtain (and realise) scores.

We would like to invite those with an interest in any particular pieces which are not easily available to indicate that interest, and we will introduce these people to each other, with a view to their sharing the costs of (hopefully) bringing the work to the concert platform. This ‘introductions’ scheme will spread the risk of initial investment (re copyright, score preparation, printing etc) whilst also enabling the realisation where possible of scores for performance, both in the UK and further afield. This idea is we feel in the ethos of the SCTF – ‘bringing people together through music’.

To enquire further, or to register an interest in specific works, please contact Hilary Burrage, the Executive Chair of SCTF via email at: hilary.burrage@sctf.org.uk as soon as possible.

Town Hall & Symphony Hall’s Director Andrew Jowett (also an ABO Board Member), has been honoured by the Birmingham Civic Society with the award of a Gold Medal in recognition of his ‘significant contribution to Birmingham’s artistic reputation’. The medal was presented following a ceremony during which Symphony Hall itself was awarded the Birmingham Civic Society’s prestigious Forward Prize for the ‘breadth of its programme combined with its proactive engagement with the local community’.

The awards mark the beginning of a year of celebration in the run up to Symphony Hall’s 21st Anniversary, which culminates in a festival running from January to June 2012.

To find out more, please follow this link to the Town Hall and Symphony Hall Birmingham website.

BASCA has issued the much-anticipated results of its Commission Fee Survey. The survey, which was made available during the first three months of this year, was completed by 522 composers, publishers and commissioners of new contemporary classical and jazz music. It asked them to supply information regarding their commissions over the last five years.

The data collated, and analysed by Business Analyst Gary Eggleton, contains information on fees paid; types of commissions; duration of commission and where the commission was raised. It extrapolates a great deal of fascinating information regarding the level of commission fees paid to UK composers, including an historical average per-minute rate for music in 17 different genres.

To read the report and reveal findings from the survey, please click here.

A new £500,000 Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture has been announced by Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). This new funding is aimed at promoting the use of digital technologies to connect with wider audiences and explore new ways of working. The fund will be available to arts and cultural organisations, including visual and performing arts organisations, cultural organisations in England including arts and cultural archives, literacy organisations, museums and galleries, libraries, commercial arts and cultural organisations and creative industry businesses.

The deadline for applications to the Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture is 2 September 2011. Following interviews with shortlisted applicants, successful applications will be announced in October 2011.

For more information about this opportunity, please follow this link: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/news/500000-research-fund-stimulate-digital-innovation-/

The Lost Arts campaign is supported by eight unions, including Equity, BECTU and the Musician’s Union. The public are encouraged to send details of arts cuts to the campaign, which will track the cuts on their website. Also available is an estimation of the cost of the cuts to the arts sector and to the economy. The launch was promoted at a rally in Westminster led by John Smith, President of FEU, Shadow Culture Secretary Ivan Lewis MP and actress Maggie Steed. The campaign is also supported by Alison McGovern MP (Labour) who has proposed an early day motion highlighting the significant economic benefit that investment in the arts creates.

Visit the Lost Arts website here.

DCMS have launched a CASE tool to provide local data on culture and heritage provision. This will help organisations to understand what they need to provide for their local community. To find out more and use the tool please click here.

The Philanthropy review, chaired by Marie Curie CEO Thomas Hughes-Hallett, was published on 20 June. The review calls on banks and government to take steps to make charitable giving easier. A number of measures have been proposed, including charity bank accounts, simpler tax incentives and an increase to Gift Aid. Find out more here.

The Government has responded to the Culture Select Committee report into funding for the arts and heritage. To see the full document, please follow this link.

Robin Ticciati has been appointed as Glyndebourne Festival Music Director from January 2014. He will take over from Vladimir Jurowski for the 80th anniversary season.

Harriet Darcel has taken the role of Head of Marketing at the Southbank Centre.

Catherine Thomson, the ABO's current intern, has been appointed Friends Administrator at the Philharmonia Orchestra.