John Gilhooly, Wigmore Hall: 'We must give musicians a platform'

It’s getting to be a habit. The Wigmore Hall is once again about to leap ahead of the competition. While other classical venues from the Southbank Centre in London to regional halls such as Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden are struggling simply to survive, the Wigmore Hall is actually putting on concerts for live audiences. Before the lockdown began it already had a stellar reputation as one of the world’s greatest venues for chamber music and song. It’s the venue everyone wants to perform in. Now it’s acquiring a new reputation as a trailblazer. Back in June it managed to mount a whole series of live concerts. The hall was empty, as it had to be at that time, but all of them were broadcast on the hall’s own website and on Radio 3.

Now they’ve done it again. Starting on September 13, the day after the Proms ends, a seven-week series consisting of no fewer than 80 concerts will take place in the hall, all of them to be broadcast live on the hall’s website. The difference this time is that there’ll be an audience. Not a large one, admittedly. To begin with it will only be 56 people, which is exactly 10 per cent of capacity. But at least it will be a taste of something like normality. Equally important is the fact that we will have international stars performing in a UK venue for the first time since lockdown. András Schiff, Igor Levit, Julia Fischer and Christian Gerhaher are among the many top-level names who will be performing. Elsewhere in the UK there have been a few modest events with live music in front of live audiences in tiny café-like spaces, but these will be the first in a major venue—unless the Proms surprises us all by admitting audiences in its final two weeks.

The man responsible for all of this is the hall’s director John Gilhooly, 46. Born in County Limerick, he shot up the ladder of arts administration in England during his twenties, working at the Harrogate and ExCel Centre, before becoming artistic director of the Wigmore Hall in 2005, at the age of only 32. He’s an indefatigable doer of good works in the arts, chairing the Royal Philharmonic Society and acting as patron and trustee of numerous musical organisations. Right now he’s in a state of pent-up excitement and trepidation, and when he talks about his plans the words come tumbling out.  “This isn’t about the hall,” he says, “it’s about musicians. There’s a lot of hardship out there among musicians of all ages, not just young ones, and this is about giving a platform to them.

As well as the stellar names, Gilhooly tells me: “We’re also making a feature of young trios and quartets. Musicians are desperate to work again.”

Now comes the big question. Will they be paid? “Absolutely.  Everyone will be paid the fee they’d normally be paid.”  So he didn’t think of asking the bigger names to come at a reduced rate? “No, I didn’t think that was fair. Everyone is in the same boat, their diaries have been empty, so they’ve all lost equally.” Does that actually add up, though? It sounds like a huge bill, just in artist’s fees alone. “Yes,” admits Gilhooly, “it’s well in excess of £400,000.”

It seems an extraordinary burst of extravagance at a time when most venues are thinking about how they can cut their spending. Gilhooly admits that the last five-and-a-half months have been tough. “We’ve been losing almost half a million pounds every month through lost ticket income. It’s not often appreciated that the Wigmore Hall relies very little on subsidy. We get £300,000 a year from Arts Council England, which is very welcome, but it’s not a large proportion of our budget, which is over £7 million a year. In a normal year we earn over £4 million from the box office, so we have to raise the remainder through our own fundraising efforts.”

To survive the hall has had to furlough half its staff and dip into its reserves of around £2.5 million. The Wigmore has also benefited from the Arts Council of England’s emergency fund to the tune of £150,000. As for the  Department of Culture and Media and Sport’s announcement of a £1.57 billion bail-out, he says it’s too soon to say whether or how it will benefit the Wigmore Hall. “There is a huge amount of detail, which will take us all a while to process, but it’s good that the scheme is open to both organisations and individual artists, and that it can help organisations to stay afloat whilst dark in order to reopen in due course. Previously financially stable organisations which have been hard hit by Covid and are in immediate danger seem to be top of the list, as  they should be.”

So what is Gilhooly’s secret? How has he managed to be bold when everyone else has been ultra-cautious? “I really don’t want to criticise my colleagues in the business,” says Gilhooly, “we all face different problems. I do think the fact we are a small organisation, just one auditorium, means we can be quicker on our feet. Also our fundraising has held up very well, but that’s thanks to our fundraising team, and frankly it’s been difficult. People say they want to help those on the breadline first, not just musicians, and then they might think about the Wigmore.”

He says that broadcasting the June concert series on Radio 3 helped. “That was a wonderful time, it really felt like the Wigmore became the beating heart of the musical nation. It encouraged donations, and we have had several gifts measured in the thousands.” One particular benefactor Louise Kaye, (widow of the loyal Wigmore supporter David Kaye) has actually underwritten the entire autumn series.

The costs aren’t just to do with artists fees. “We’re deep-cleaning all the carpets and upholstery now, and during the series will be fumigating the auditorium before and after performance,” says Gilhooly. “And we’ll be managing the movement of people very carefully. There’ll be “comfort breaks” but no intervals. This is very important, because we surveyed our audience and 66 per cent across all age groups said they would be willing to come back to the hall, if proper precautions were taken.”  

Gilhooly is too diplomatic to say he feels disappointed about Dowden’s announcement that social distancing rules will not be reviewed until November. “We have always planned on not exceeding the recommended 20 per cent capacity for our series so today’s announcement makes no difference to us at this stage.”

So how will the lucky 56 audience members be chosen? Gilhooly tells me they will be holding two ticket lotteries - one for members and then a later one for the general public.

As for his plans for winter and the longer term, Gilhooly is reluctant to make any predictions. “The winter is the time when winter colds begin, and people will perhaps feel less confident,” he says. “We may fundraise for a spring series but really it’s hard to plan when we don’t know what the future holds. My hunch is that like every arts organisation we will have to streamline.”

So there’s uncertain weather ahead. But in the meantime let’s rejoice that when the Proms ends it won’t be a dark silent Autumn. Thanks to the Wigmore Hall there will be an Indian Summer of real live music.

For details of the Wigmore Hall series see www.wigmore-hall.org.uk. Ticket lottery details for members will be announced on 18 August.  General public lottery details will be announced later in the month.