The story about the European Union Baroque Orchestra is doing the rounds again and this is an excellent example of that fake news which we're all told we must be so vigilant against these days. As has been said about this particular ensemble before, as also with the European Union Youth Orchestra, they are moving their usual base out of the UK as a result of Brexit. That all seems fine enough, except that the stories don't in fact tell us the truth about why they are doing this. We get a lot of wrapping about possible new visa rules and so on. And absolutely no mention at all of the true reason. The EU pays for all this guff and they'll not pay for it for organisations outside the EU. Seems fair enough really as well, their money, their choices:
Since then it has been based in the countryside near Oxford, each year assembling some 20 young musicians from across the continent and sending them on international tour. Now, because of Brexit, it has to leave its English home.
Next year the orchestra will move its office and legal base to Antwerp, Belgium, so that it will still be in the EU once Britain quits the bloc in 2019.
That all sounds entirely fair and reasonable, doesn't it? EU orchestra moves to stay in the EU. But the problem with the story, what elevates it to fake news, is the why:
No one is sure what will happen once Britain leaves the bloc, which has brought near-borderless conditions for artists to travel and work. Will Europeans need visas to perform in Britain, and vice versa? Will musical instruments require travel papers to cross the English Channel?
"In our world most of the musicians are freelance, they rely on the possibility of free movement, both of their performances and of their friends and collaborators," James said. "The cross-border collaboration is massive in our business, and this will severely restrict that.
Umm, no, that's really not the reason at all. Although this is a point which seems to be circulating widely:
The event which caught my eye and underscored my undying disbelief in the very notion of Brexit is that its implicit threat to free travel between Britain and Europe for working musicians has prompted the European Union Baroque Orchestra (Oxford-based since 1985) to move to Belgium.
And now the European Union Youth Orchestra, of which Ashkenazy is a former director, is also contemplating a move to mainland Europe after more than 40 years in London.
It really isn't the freedom of movement. As I've pointed out before elsewhere:
We do tend to think that it really is about paperwork but perhaps a rather different sort, the now tallow enabled crinkly folding stuff. From the EU Baroque Orchestra page:
The European Union Baroque Orchestra is unique: EUBO nurtures and supports young baroque music performers through the challenging transition between conservatoire study and the music profession.
The activities of EUBO are an integral part of the EUBO Mobile Baroque Academy (EMBA), a Creative Europe co-operation project 2015-2018 co-funded by the European Union.
From the EU Youth Orchestra page:
The EUYO is funded with support from the 28 member governments of the European Union.
With the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission
It doesn't seem all that remarkable to us that EU funded projects would like to remain in the EU in order to maintain their EU funding.
The European Union pays for these orchestras. They do so on the basis that the activities of the orchestras take place in the EU. Post-Brexit the UK will no longer be in the EU therefore the orchestras will not be based here. And that's really it. This is about the money, not the visas. And given the vigilance we're supposed to be using against fake news these days it's about time people started pointing that out, isn't it?
