Voices From The Music Industry

Chris Allen

"We have lost all our customers in Europe. They now have to pay 25 or so percent of the purchase price in tax or import duty to their own government. So they won't. They can't send an instrument over for repair or adjustment because of all the hang-ups at customs. The paperwork that may or may not be accepted. Instruments can be left in warehouses for two or three weeks at a time."

Luthier and Instrument Maker

Professor Jonathan Freeman-Attwood

"It has been a complete no-win situation. The whole idea of boundaries is totally alien to the concept of being a professional musician. It goes against the mentality of how musicians think. Brexit has stopped the flow of talent coming in. I think there will be terminal damage in an area where we have a world-renowned reputation."

Principal, Royal Academy of Music

Matt Cargill

"The post-Brexit Carnet for us was over £1000. Each had to be itemised. 8 hours waiting at Dover and it costs over a grand for the pleasure. What’s worse, is that sometimes nobody ever looks at the stuff.”

Matt has been in a touring band for over 10 years, his first EU tour was in 2015. He works as a touring musician with Sly and the Family Drone, and the tech manager of the King Alfred Phoenix Theatre in Golders Green, North London.

Sabina Allen-Kormylo

"It's absolutely devastating because I think Britain has such richness in music and talent."

"I remember phoning the Welsh office saying, okay, I'm having this instrument and I need to send it to Europe: what do I do? And they said, well, we don't really know yet."

"Now, we basically don't have European customers."

Sabina Allen-Kormylo works as an instrument-maker, a luthier, based in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

Peter Hoare

"There is a visa for the UK that Schengen artists can get, which lasts for a year and is easily renewable online."

"There is no reciprocating visa for UK artists to do the same, and you must also know that we were offered free touring, visa free touring as artists. But they (the UK government) refused it.”

Peter Hoare is a Grammy-nominated operatic and classical tenor from Bradford. Peter has made a career and a name for himself through performing both classical and contemporary opera.

Ian Smith

"In the past you could easily travel to the EU. You could work in any of the EU states. There were no complications regarding taking over equipment. There were no complications taking over any merchandise. That is no longer available to you.”

Ian Smith is the founder of both Frusion and UKEARTSWORK and Project Lead for Waves Vienna.

Amongst holding a host of other roles over a long career in the live music sector, Ian is a musician, producer, engineer, festival & event promoter and Arts Centre programmer.

James Henshaw

"Most people in the UK, even the most successful opera singers that we have, will be working a lot in Europe. That's the only way to make it work. It's kind of like 'just-in-time' manufacturing: we need someone who can do this piece now. Can you come tomorrow? The British people are no longer in contention for those jobs."

Opera and Classical Music Conductor

Kira Doherty

"Brexit for us has felt like an accelerant on a fire that was already there. There is so much more cost and red tape involved. What you're seeing in real terms is a stagnation, if you're lucky, of fees. On a professional level, people have left the industry already, because it's simply not worth it."

French Horn Player, Philharmonia Orchestra

Rachel Nicholls

"I'm very sorry to say that I think the industry in the UK is dying. I think we're out of the equation in terms of working in Europe and, although I'm freelance and British, up until Brexit I was working more in Europe than I was here."

Rachel Nicholls is a freelance classical soprano, who studied at the Royal College of Music.