Classical musicians plead for support as cancelled concerts blight income
Musicians and performing groups face a bleak future as the coronavirus shutdown has meant earnings evaporated overnight. Will the industry ever recover?
It’s not called the gig economy by accident. Musicians are among those hardest hit by the cultural shutdown, and with the government currently offering only universal credit for the self-employed, millions throughout the sector are facing huge financial hardship.
“Roughly 90% of our members are affected,” said Horace Trubridge, general secretary of the Musicians’ Union. “This will force musicians out of the profession. Our members also do a lot of event work – weddings and conferences – that has also fallen off a cliff, coupled with the fact that most of our members subsidise their income from live performance by teaching and studio recording work which of course they can’t do now either.”