This has become a necessity for contemporary artists and the reason is that it is very hard now to get public funding. The only way you will get public funding is if you comply with very stringent criteria for your project.
Now as an artist you may have your own vision and that is precious and that is why you may struggle with getting public funding. Also, there is the question of how much psychic and physical effort it takes to apply for these funds. In the case of an arts council funding application it can take up to a week of your time.
Just step back for a minute and think what you could do with that week instead of preparing an application. Are you're scratching your head? Wondering how you can fit in with this? and if so, how do I do it?
Instead let me first tell you about my largest project which was putting on my opera Quilt Song at the Birmingham Old Rep and more recently, three large choral works with orchestra, two choirs and soloists in the lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral.
For each large project, I made sure that I had all the fees necessary for the professional musicians and singers fees in place before the concert. This relieved me of a lot of stress because I wouldn't want to feel that I would have to dig into my own pocket to pay the musicians and singers.
In the case of Quilt Song at Birmingham Old Rep, the magic project figure was 25K, But for the projects in Ely Cathedral they come in at about 6 to 9K and last time I recorded the concert with the wonderful support of a professional recording engineer and this made all the difference to the product, so I think it is really worth spending that extra money to get a good recording that you can put it on SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube for promotion.
The main bulk of the money raised until recently has been to pay the players and the vocal soloists. So, the budget for a small orchestra is in the region of about 3 to 4 K and for four soloists in the region of about £1,200. So, you're getting a picture, it's about 5K to 6K to cover two concerts and rehearsals plus the venue hire and recording fees circa 2 to 3 K.
Up to now I have raised the money in this way:
I have run singing courses for amateur singers who come and stay with me. Because they're residential courses I am able to charge quite a lot of money for staying. This has largely funded the orchestra and soloists.
In addition, I get a great amount of joy and stimulation from painting, it is part of my practice as a composer to paint. I have far too many paintings so I have an art exhibition on average about once every two years and usually I am able to generate between 2 to 3K.
On top of that, I have had some luck quite unexpectedly in the sense that I have a sponsor who for the last three years has given two thousand pounds towards each choral project and the reason she says she does this is because she likes my music. So, it comes down in the end to what you're able to make as a product, in my case my composition. I feel pretty confident that my music is highly regarded and I was lucky enough to get a very good review in Musical Opinion last year which also helped.
“Sea Requiem was a substantial score, yet the material flowed naturally… the extended silence which followed this conclusion…. was a tribute to the audience’s rapt concentration and the cumulative effect of Susannah Self’s fervent, directly expressive music.“
Paul Conway, Musical Opinion 2023
On top of what I've said so far about raising funds, I also have put in an enormous amount of elbow effort and forming and training two choirs of amateur singers who have quality. In other words, they have had to audition or I knew their worth because I want to create quality concerts and quality recordings. I can't afford to have anybody as a hanger on. For these two choirs I charge a modest fee per term of £45 a term. If you have 20 members in one choir and 10 and the other that's getting on for over 3K in subscriptions and that makes a huge difference.
Now because I am not really famous, to put on a concert in Ely Cathedral of a new work is a risk in terms of raising an audience so to help ameliorate this I have twinned my choral works with well-known, well-loved choral works. So the first year my Sea Requiem went with the Faure Requiem, this year my Stabat Mater went with the Vivaldi’s Gloria and then next year my Magnificat is twinned with Duruflé’s Requiem. And I think there is a longer term aim here, in the sense that these established works would go very well with my new works because I use the same orchestration.
Stabat Mater in Ely Cathedral 2024
https://youtu.be/YZwU3PJYTic?si=C9B3xjz_vPq3E2oP
However, I know that my choirs are not famous in the sense that the Monteverdi Choir is. Charging for tickets is therefore quite a gamble. And so, for the last two years we have actually made the concerts free. And this has enabled a full house which I think is actually more valuable than a half house because that can be very dispiriting.
All this activity is born out of a vision as an artist and therefore an audience is a key part of that.
Sadly, next year the hire cost of the Lady Chapel has gone through the roof. So, two years ago, it was 600 pounds, this year it was 1200 pounds and next year it will be 2,000 pounds. But I'm glad to say that we have the money in the bank already for the project.
I also want to tell you about a community project that has helped fund the next major project and that is my opera ARTEMISIA which we put on with amateur singers in the local art centre in Norfolk and two village halls. Now for this project I was able to again charge the amateur singers a subscription of 45 pounds a term. A lot of that money, I used to make really lovely costumes for the singers but then I created the opera so that they were either accompanied by me playing the piano. or by backing tracks, which I created with technology and so there were no professional fee costs. I also asked two singers to help run the events because I cooked food for the two Village Hall events and this meant that we could charge significantly more money per ticket than just having a performance of an opera. So, at the end of the day we actually made 1,300 pounds out of this project. Which I think was terrific and I looked forward to making more community work.
One final thing I haven't mentioned so far is bartering. Bartering is a great way of not having to actually raise the cash. For example, in Quilt Song at the Birmingham Old Rep I got the hire of the theatre for a week which was five thousand pounds for free on the back of training young singers at Birmingham Ormiston Academy for two years. I went every Wednesday to train these singers and then I inserted them into my opera. This is a great example of bartering, It was though hard work. Also, for my choral concerts because I'm sometimes short of the very best singers particularly men so I have to pay for stiffeners. But I also found a way of offering a series of free singing lessons in return for them singing in the concert, and this works very well and has really empowered them because I'm a very good singing teacher and they've got a lot out singing in the Choir and this year some of them will also be singing the solos.
I hope this blog helps explain how I go about fund these ambitious projects. I think that people might imagine that I'm funding this concerts out of my own private trust fund. However, I can assure you that I have am a self-employed musician and have been all my life. It has been quite a struggle at times and I continue to teach and conduct to earn a living . I don't have a private pension in place for the future so I have to keep myself nice and fit. But that's another blog! I just want to wish you the best if you decide to put on your own project. I believe it’s worth it!
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