Empowering Orchestral Musicians: The WNO Story, a Campaign for Survival

About the event

In spring 2024, Welsh National Opera (WNO) management announced that due to funding cuts by Arts Council England and Arts Council Wales, the future of WNO was at risk.

The management were considering cutting numbers in the orchestra and making the orchestra part time, which would, as a result, impose a 15% pay cut on those musicians. The players then began their campaign to save WNO, to seek a sustainable funding package, and look at alternatives to ensure WNO’s survival.

Guest speakers

In our new online event, hear from Amy Till, Sub-Principal Oboe in the orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, about her own experiences of fighting to keep WNO full time and at full time pay since announcements in Spring 2024. She will discuss why WNO is so important to musicians and the community in Cardiff; how musicians and supporters collectively organised themselves to campaign for change; how they decided what action to take at each stage; and what challenges they faced along the way.

Joining Amy is Sinead McCarney, the MU’s Campaign & Organising Support Official. Sinead has been supporting MU members in their campaigns, with a particular focus on the work at WNO over the last year. Sinead will share her experiences of organising orchestral musicians; supporting members in their actions; gathering political and celebrity support to keep the campaign in the media; and also discuss how the Union tailors its support to each campaign based on the individuals, their passion, their skills and their objectives.

The session will be chaired by Sam Dunkley, MU Orchestra Support Official, who leads a number of the Union’s orchestral collective negotiations across the UK, securing and supporting the best terms and conditions possible in collaboration with our members.

What we’ll cover

During this one hour webinar, we will hear from both Amy and Sinead on how members at WNO:

• Built relationships for effective change
• Maintained resilience in the face of long-term action
• Decided when action should be taken and when it should be paused
• Dealt with challenges and learned from experiences
• Balanced formal industrial action with campaigning and lobbying

This online session will also provide an opportunity for wider discussion about some of your own workplace challenges, building on the experience of Amy and Sinead.

You will be able to ask questions, but there is no obligation to participate if you would rather just attend as an observer. This event also provides a great opportunity to meet Union officials and other orchestral musicians across the UK.

If you do have questions, you can ask them on the day or submit them in advance to orchestral@themu.org.

Meet the experts

Amy Till is Sub-Principal Oboe in the orchestra of the Welsh National Opera. She has also recently featured as Guest Principal with London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC NOW, BBC Symphony Orchestra and London Chamber Orchestra.

She is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician, having become a 2019 PDGYA award winner with ‘Making Music’, and commercially recorded the Villa Lobos Concerto Grosso. In 2023 she premiered Joshua Borin’s work ‘At Every Turn’ at the Barbican with the London Schools Symphony Orchestra.
 
In 2020 Amy wrote a series of books entitled ‘Keeping in Shape’, aimed at students of all ages and abilities wanting to warm up well, and keep fit and healthy on the oboe. Over 500 copies have been sold in every continent (except Antarctica!).

She graduated from The Royal Academy of Music where she received a First Class MA with Chris Cowie, Ian Hardwick and Melanie Ragge. Previously she studied on the Joint Course between the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester, studying oboe with Jonathan Small. She received a First from both institutions and won the RNCM Concerto Competition. Whilst at the Academy she also won the Evelyn Rothwell Oboe Prize, Janet Craxton Memorial Prize and Barry Grimaldi Cor Anglais Prize. Find out more about Amy.
 

Sinead McCarney is the MU’s Campaign and Organising Support Official. She works directly with members to support their campaigns, develop organising opportunities and trade union education pathways.

Sinead previously worked as an organiser for Unison (the largest Trade Union in the UK), specialising in supporting bank workers in the health sector - including one of the largest hospital trusts in the Southwest - as well as with equalities groups across the region.

 

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