Crisis? What crisis?

Classical Music, 4/12/10

While most arts organisations gird their loins for a period in the economic wilderness one orchestra is basking in the glow of a healthy bank balance and a full diary. Simon Tait meets Oxford Philomusica director Marios Papadopoulos to find out how it’s done

Subsidised symphony orchestras up and down the country are bracing themselves for a dramatic drop in income as the government grant falls away over the next three years, but there is one that has no such concerns.

An 80-strong professional ensemble, the Oxford Philomusica has never had brighter prospects. Nor has it ever had core funding, and over its 12 years of existence it has steadily developed its fortunes. It is the official resident orchestra of the University of Oxford, and this year it is looking at a 60% growth in its bank account, contentedly in the black since a watershed year in its relatively short history.

Its creator and musical director is the pianist and conductor Marios Papadopoulos who describes himself as a maverick, and a close observer of him and his orchestra says, ‘Marios doesn’t understand how the music system works in this country, which is probably the secret of his success’. Born in Cyprus, he comes from the non-musical family of an accountant, began piano at five and got as far as Grade 8 at the age of 12 before the island’s teaching reserve expired, and the family moved to England. He was privately tutored and says that it was in 1972 when he was the Young Musician of the Year, an accolade that comes with a sheaf of bookings, that he first played at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. ‘I just fell for Oxford, and we’ve been together ever since,’ he says.

His career took him elsewhere, including to the City University for his doctorate, and 1972 was also the year that Michael Tippett first booked Papadopoulos for the Bath Festival, to play Tippet’s Fantasia on a theme by Handel. Unknown to him, William Walton was in the audience celebrating his 70th birthday, and the 17-year-old joined Tippett and Walton for a celebratory lunch. ‘I was completely over-awed, I couldn’t eat or speak through the whole meal,’ he recalls.

By the mid-90s Papadopoulos was also conducting quite a bit, and going through a career reassessment: ‘I never enjoyed travel much, I always wanted to have my own platform, and there it was staring at me – Oxford’. It was the one city outside London where an audience for classical music could be pretty much guaranteed, and the orchestra would be his vehicle as virtuoso pianist and conductor. It was near enough to the capital to be able to fish the pond of freelance players, ‘an hour further away and it couldn’t have worked,’ Papadopoulos says.

The name was a forgone conclusion, and the distinctive logo, ‘op’ with the natural symbol, was printed on all their notepaper and publicity material before they knew that beneath their radar there was already a student ensemble called the Oxford Philharmonic. So to fit the logo, they called it Philomusica instead.

But it was tough, a professional orchestra whose players need to be paid has to hit the ground running, and box office has never been a major earner for the Philomusica. The Sheldonian, its lovely home, has just 60 premium seats for which it can charge a top price of £37.50, and ticket sales account for only 11% of its annual £1m income. More than 60% comes from sponsorship, donations and individuals, about 13% from the orchestra’s Friends organisation, and the rest from one-off project funding.

What changed its fortunes dramatically was the university’s decision in 2002 to adopt it as its resident orchestra, and although there is no direct funding from Oxford, almost overnight the Philhamusica’s bank balance was reversed from a £36,000 overdraft to a £34,000 credit the next year. The residency is approved by the chancellor and vice-chancellor of the university and renewable every four years. The fact that Vladimir Ashkenazy is the orchestra’s patron won’t have harmed it’s cause.

‘I think the university, in fund-raising mode, realised there could be a cultural icon they could use when they entertain their alumni, and music attracts people who have perhaps had enough of High Table dinner, that perhaps music would be something different,’ Papadopoulos says.

But the association is much more seriously fruitful. The Philharmonic is now firmly embedded with Oxford’s music faculty. ‘The faculty offered excellent academic courses but not a great deal of help for instrumental tuition and performance opportunities, so we complement it in that way’. They also offer apprenticeships to graduate musicians, auditions, workshops and masterclasses, and the composer workshops are well established. There are two Oxford music undergraduate apprentices on the playing strength, and three graduates working in the orchestra’s office. It draws on the choral traditions of the Oxford colleges, and the choirs of Christ Church and New College are frequent associates.

Papadopoulos and the Philomusica have a commitment to youth, and in the new season no fewer than three former BBC Young Musicians of the Year – Nicola Benedetti (violin), Jennifer Pike (violin) and Mark Simpson (clarinet) – are performing, the latter two being current students at the university. It’s annual summer piano competition has become an important platform for young musicians wanting to launch themselves.

That commitment spills over to the community, and the orchestra has forged an equally firm partnership with the local authorities, city and county, working with schools, community centres and hospitals, so that in 2007 the Philomusica won the Oxford Times Community Award.

The operation has been augmented in the last year by the appointment of a development manager, Simon Payne, an Oxford classics graduate and ‘useful’ bassoon player who had been pursuing a successful career in publishing before reverting to fundraising and now being lured back to music to look for ‘new opportunities’.

The orchestra is expanding its operations. In March it makes its debut as the orchestra in association at the new Waterside in Aylesbury, which opened in October, and Reading also beckons.

Payne deflects credit. ‘All I have to do is follow up the contacts and connections Marios has made,’ he says, but the art of the follow-up is clearly paying dividends. ‘What Marios has done is attract useful and important people to join the trust or the advisory council, and you just have to look at the names – Lady Heseltine, Lord Chadlington, Sir Curtis Price – who all work hard for the orchestra’. Recent appointments to the trust are the restaurateur Raymond Blanc and the judge Sir David Keene.

‘We have made ourselves part of our community, that is our secret, and that community is now beyond Oxford and in the Thames Valley,’ Papadopoulos says. ‘We know our audiences and we give them what they want, but we depend on the support of people who help us and won’t continue to do that if we let our standards drop. If there’s a secret, that’s it.’