Arts-world activism saved the BBC Singers. Let’s take the same fight to government cuts

theguardian.com:

S o it’s over – for now. After two weeks of unprecedented protest, the BBC has bowed to the inevitable andsuspended immediate plans to disband the BBC Singers. There are caveats, though: the funding to keep them afloat has been offered by external organisations, which would be a new model entirely for a BBC ensemble and raises a number of questions. These options are only being “actively explored” – no done deals yet. And let’s not forget the orchestras, over whom the axe of redundancy still looms. But we can be cautiously optimistic. The BBC is committed to the Singers and “still plans to invest more widely in the future of choral singing across the UK”.

If this all works out then – a big if – we could be looking at a win-win for choral singing in this country. That we have got to this point is testimony to the extraordinary surge of activism over the last fortnight, uniting protest across the musical world and forging unlikely common cause across the political spectrum: when did all major newspapers – even the Spectator and the Morning Star – last agree on anything? It’s worth taking a moment to recall the breadth of opponents to the BBC’s plans: a worldwide coalition of conductors, composers, choral directors; music teachers and academics; professional, amateur and children’s choirs; most major UK music organisations and colleges; and 150k petition signatories. Nor was this opposition behind closed doors, but played out in furious newspaper columns and most of all in the bear pits of social media, where ingenious methods of coordinating action and awareness delivered huge responses.

In other words, we did it. Collective protest on a huge scale is what made the BBC U-turn. The battle may not be over, but we now know