Top orchestra leaves Britain for Antwerp over Brexit fears

The European Union Baroque Orchestra (pictured) was founded in 1985 and receives funding from the EU’s cultural programme. It recruits 20 to 25 young musicians every year from about 100 who audition, and offers them intensive training and experience in performing under the guidance of music director Lars Ulrik Mortensen and an array of guest conductors.

The group, based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, has also recorded four CDs and plays in concert halls and at summer festivals across Europe.

According to general manager Emma Wilkinson, the move to Antwerp at this time is “wise” while uncertainty remains over the effects of Brexit on EU citizens living in the UK. The British government has so far refused to give a clear assurance that they will be able to stay after the country leaves the EU.

“I do worry that European orchestras will not be inviting talented British musicians to work with them,” Wilkinson told the paper. “It will just be too bureaucratically difficult.”

The paper also reports that the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) is making its own contingency plans to move to the EU mainland if necessary. The orchestra has been based in London since it was created in 1976.

“If we do land with a hard Brexit, it is really difficult to see how British musicians will be able to continue to take advantage of the opportunities that the EUYO and other EU initiatives have been able to offer generations of European musicians,” chief executive Marshall Marcus is quoted as saying.

Photo courtesy European Union Baroque Orchestra