I first
met Simon Halsey 32 years ago, when he joined the team at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Now, he is the CBSO Chorus Master. This summer, he leads
an extravagant public participation project, Crowd Out, taking over Millennium Point with a thousand, count 'em, a thousand, singers. I'm in: there's a blog post to come on this later this year.
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| Halsey at TEDx, Berlin 2010. Photo Sebastian Gabsch |
At rehearsals, he flipped from English to German with ease, the result of working in Berlin for the past 15 years. He is ferociously busy, about to swap the Berlin Philharmonic Chorus, Germany's top choir, for the London Symphony equivalent. His job is Chorus Master, but in reality it's a lot
more. He has deep knowledge of funding, and, critically, of how organisations can survive and prosper, re-inventing themselves, burrowing deep into in the communities they serve, with humility and practical intent.
So, he is an interesting and political man,
as well as a committed musician with a unique perspective.UK Arts and Media institutions could do well
to study how the CBSO, with his help, has played
its hand over the past three decades. There are profound lessons to learn.
