St David's Hall: Musicians' concerns over venue plans

Former royal harpist Catrin Finch says there is a fine balance between commercial viability and cultural heritage

Leading figures in the music world have voiced concern over plans to hand over the running of a major Welsh venue to a private company.

Some have accused Cardiff council of seeking a "quick fix"and not acting transparently over St David's Hall.

Cardiff council voted down a move to force a public consultation on the future of the music venue on Friday.

The authority said it had been looking for a solution since 2014 and it would mean millions of pounds of investment.

Academy Music Group (AMG) wants to take on the city centre concert hall and invest in its modernisation.

Under the proposed agreement, AMG, which currently runs 02 Academy venues in cities across England and Scotland, would "take on full responsibility for the building" and make changes and upgrades.

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This would include installing some removable seating so standing gigs could take place, a proposal the council said had been "tested and approved" by the hall's original engineers.

AMG also promised to ensure classical events were given some priority by allocating 60 days a year for them to take place.

Councillors discussed a motion brought forward by the Liberal Democrats on Friday evening, calling for a public consultation on the future of the venue before a decision was made on AMG's proposal.

The motion also called for the council to publish the full business case justifying why AMG's proposal was being considered, how it would preserve the city's cultural heritage and to explore alternatives.

The motion was voted down but the council did commit to a consultation, should AMG's proposal be accepted in principle.

Liberal Democrat councillor Jon Shimmin, said this would be "not a consultation on the future of the hall" but a "consultation on the budget".

Labour's Leonora Thomson said the venue "needs the kind of investment that the council cannot make".

The agreement would see AMG taking on maintenance of the organ

Catrin Finch, a former royal harpist who has played at the hall since she was a child, said for her the debate was part of a wider question about how we value the arts.

She said: "I think it's looking more and more likely as the years and the decades go on that there is a risk that we will lose our national concert halls.

"I feel that the answer maybe isn't the quick fix one. I appreciate that something needs to happen to the hall and someone needs to invest in it.

"I really feel we need to think beyond the quick fix solution because it would be a travesty in 30, 40, 50 years' time that we don't have a platform here for an orchestra or for classical music events here in Wales."

Former royal harpist Catrin Finch says there is a fine balance between commercial viability and cultural heritage

Completed in 1982, the hall has hosted many concerts, ballets and pop and comedy acts.

However, it is first and foremost a concert hall with acoustics designed to allow the sound of orchestras and classical singers to fill the space.

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Owain Arwel Hughes, a conductor who founded the Welsh proms at St David's Hall, said his initial response to the plan was "horror".

"We have the finest concert hall, among the top 10 in the world, and we have it in Cardiff," he said.

"This firm are now taking it on because they are all over the country but they are known for pop, that's what they will do. To have a wonderful hall for acoustics just for pop doesn't make any sense to me at all."

Cardiff council says it is facing a £53m black hole in its budget for next year and the hall costs £1m a year to run

However, over the past 40 years Cardiff has changed, with many other other venues since built which host musical concerts, including the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff International Arena (formerly the Motorpoint Arena) and even the Principality Stadium.

Gary Raymond, editor of the Wales Arts Review, believes those changes mean this is a matter of "head versus heart".

Arts journalist Gary Raymond believes Cardiff has changed a lot since St David's Hall was built

"You have to ask yourself if a classical music venue of this size in a city like Cardiff is sustainable in the future," he said.

"I think the world has changed around St David's Hall - it may not be a world I feel comfortable in, with corporations getting involved in arts and culture."

Cardiff council said it had been looking at alternative ways to fund St David's Hall since 2014 and that the situation was assessed annually.

Any proposal from the meeting would have to go to a full cabinet meeting before approval

It added that AMG had a "good track record of looking after important local heritage buildings across the UK" and would "further enhance the reputation of St David's Hall as one of the best classical music venues in the UK".

Its councillor in charge of culture, Jennifer Burke Davies, added: "This council knows the importance of St David's Hall to classical music lovers and the proposal does protect the main classical programme, community events and includes opportunities for these to be extended."

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