Elgar Festival claims Arts Council has cut funding because English composer is not ‘trendy enough’

The Arts Council has been accused of cutting funding for an Edward Elgar festival because the event is not “trendy” enough

An annual series of concerts in honour of the English composer, held in his hometown of Worcester, is under threat following a 40 per cent cut in grant funding.

Organisers warned that events dedicated to traditional figures like Elgar were at risk because Arts Council England was choosing to support “trendy” projects over “great art”.

A fundraising campaign supported by Julian Lloyd Webber has been launched to save the festival dedicated to a “great Englishman and great composer”.

Elgar’s works are counted among the most famous in the classical canon, and works like Pomp and Circumstance and the Enigma Variations are considered typically English pieces.

Kenneth Woods, a conductor and artistic director of the Elgar Festival, has raised concerns about the Arts Council funding model, telling The Telegraph: “Grant funding should be about supporting great art, rather than trendy art, or art that represents only a subset of our community.

A symbol of British excellence

“Great art is for everyone. Elgar is for everyone. Elgar has as much meaning to me coming from Wisconsin as it does to someone coming from the Malverns.”

He added:  “Elgar is more than just a composer, he’s a symbol of British excellence, and of a collective history.

“In a society that is becoming ever more fragmented, that shared sense of what Britain is is becoming ever more important and ever more fragile.”

The Elgar Festival has this year been provided with £30,000 from the Arts Council, down from £50,000 the previous year.

The funding reduction comes after a prolonged row over the Arts Council’s decision to slash opera funding in London in order to distribute cash outside the capital

Mr Woods has questioned why the Arts Council would seek to reduce funding from an event in Worcester, apparently against its own funding principle of shifting money to other regions of the UK.

The Elgar Festival hosts free events and seeks to introduce young and diverse listeners to the composer with the mantra of “Elgar is for everyone”, in line with Arts Council’s priorities of diversifying audiences, organisers have said.

An online fundraising campaign on GoFundMe has been launched to make up the £20,000 shortfall, and ensure events can go ahead as planned on May 27.

Conductor and patron of the festival, Mr Lloyd Webber, has called on the British public to help support the event, saying in a video message: “We should celebrate this great Englisman, great – possibly greatest – English composer, in his home city every year. In order to do this,we need more support.”

He added: “We do need financial support. If these events are to be free and are really to bring people to this great composer in this beautiful city, then we need more support, and to make sure this continues as an annual event.”

Launched in 2018 with the support of Worcester council, the festival takes place during the week closest to the anniversary of Elgar’s birthday, June 2, 1857.

Elgar was a largely self-taught composer from the Malvern Hills – a landscape which inspired much of his music.

He achieved fame in 1897 for his Enigma Variations, including the Nimrod, which has since become a patriotic piece of music, typically played to crowds observing the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph.

An Arts Council England spokesman said: “Arts Council England is absolutely committed to creative excellence, in all the shapes and sizes it comes in, and across all the arts organisations, museums and libraries in which we invest. We’re delighted to be supporting the upcoming Elgar Festival with £29,999.

“We have a longstanding relationship with the festival and have awarded them £143,000 worth of public money since 2019, via our National Lottery project funding.

“Competition for this particular fund is very high and funding does not roll over from one project to another, nor is it guaranteed year after year. To that end, it is testament to the strength of Elgar Festival’s offering that we have been able to invest in them as often as we have.”