Fairytales and Melancholy

Recent German government media policy specifies the mandate of public broadcasters with regard to their programs. It states: "Public service broadcasts must serve the purposes of culture, education, information and advice. Entertainment corresponding to a public service profile is part of the mandate."
Culture deliberately comes first. Until now, culture has never featured so prominently within the policy description. The political will is to increase the importance of culture in the public service sector in the future. In view of this mandate, one would think that those responsible at the public broadcasters would embrace the cultural sector, launch new cultural projects and expand existing ones. But to the contrary, now directors are outdoing each other with ever new proposals on how they can cut back the cultural offerings of their stations.

Olaf Zimmermann, Managing Director, Deutscher Kulturrat 
 

With a budget of 6.9 Billion Euros and over 22.000 employees, the ARD (the joint organization of Germany´s regional public service broadcasters) is the largest public broadcaster network in the world. As announced in a recent press conference, ARD will reduce its contribution to the Munich-based ARD Competition by 50 percent from the current annual amount of 740,000 Euros to 370,000 euros, starting in 2025. Further funding beyond 2025 is still unclear. Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio), which has been organizing the event since 1952, wants to increase its contribution to partially offset the reduction in funding. It also wants to attract more sponsors. 
WFIMC spoke with Björn Wilhelm, program director for culture at Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio).
 

WFIMC: How did we get to the current situation? Cuts have to be made everywhere, and culture is always first on the list for budget cuts, but the ARD Competition was actually held for more than 15 years with the same budget. And that budget is not a huge budget in the first place, if you compare it to other international competitions. Munich is the number one competition in Germany, and it is actually not one, but four competitions every year with its four categories….

Björn Wilhelm: Well, I'll start with a robust but friendly contradiction. What you say is simply not true. It's a fairytale to say that when budget cuts are made, it's always the culture that is cut first. This is simply wrong. Look at our annual reports of the last ten years, look at where we save money, and you will find that we always cut asymmetrically. We always take a lower percentage from art and culture than what we cut from entertainment, sports and fiction. 
It is a total misjudgement that we unfairly put the arts at a disadvantage. And I am a bit sensitive about this because I also have to justify budget cuts in other areas: for millions of people who are entitled to the same kind of services as the people who visit the competition. Still, it is always the arts representatives who keep criticizing me.

WFIMC: Over the past ten years, costs have risen tremendously, yet the competition budget has stayed the same. Now you want to cut it in half- is that not enough reason to worry?

Björn Wilhelm: The current funding debate is absolutely nothing unusual, as the competition has been commissioned for four years, in a time frame which is kept close to the budgeting periods of the public broadcasters. At the moment, we don´t know what exactly will happen after these four years, which means that our agreement with the competition simply expires at the end of 2024. So it is a completely normal process for us to ask: are we, how are we going to continue?
At the moment, the public broadcasters are in a situation that is quite new for us: we have applied for our funding, and the financial commission is about to determine our requirements and will make a recommendation to the government sometime in February. But at the same time there are politicians who are saying: we won´t give you anything, no matter what the outcome. And this is the current situation. The broadcasters have to decide what to spend, what to invest in a future that is in no way financially secure. Now, some institutions (not me, not the Bayerische Rundfunk) are questioning the commitments we are really able to make for the future, especially commitments outside of our core business. This has nothing to do with our opinion about the competition, or its importance or its legacy. But when it comes to the question: do we cut TV programs, do we cut radio and online media but at the same time hold an excellence competition for aspiring professional musicians in Munich? When it comes to this question, everyone has to make their own decision.
 

In view of the news of cutbacks as well as the question marks for 2026 and the following years, there is a sense of melancholy. It seems as if the whole event is placed on an ever-shrinking iceberg. For 2025, according to Meret Foster, it will now have to be reduced from four to three disciplines. Otherwise, the competition will hardly be able to represent a succession of generations of young artists. This would be even more true if the well-established annual rhythm would have to give way to two or even three-year intervals between competitions. On top of it all, disciplines such as guitar, organ or wind quintet are up for debate as to whether they will have to be pushed off the iceberg in 2025.
The ARD competition has a unique selling point: not only the popular violin, piano, cello and singers are invited to compete, but almost all important instruments from flute to percussion, on a rotating basis. There are also ensemble competitions. No other competition offers this variety…
Harald Eggebrecht, Sueddeutsche Zeitung
 

In any case, I am really grateful that all the directors have backed our plan, even for 2024, to keep the competition despite this impending lack of funding. But that was only possible because Bayerischer Rundfunk and myself said we would compensate for the missing budget.
Let me be clear: I am not worried about the competition. It will exist. It is that important for me, for us, and we will do everything to ensure that it continues on the same level, with the same quality. Only the decision on how we will manage this won´t be made before the coming spring.

WFIMC: So the only remaining question is “how”?

Björn Wilhelm: You don´t have to worry that the competition will disappear after 2025. But besides the “how”, the “what” is of course also a very important question for us, and I think your members will know very well what I mean. What is the meaning of a competition today? Is it still the same as in the past? One question is how to provide funding, how to find partners and sponsors for a competition whose requirements have increased significantly, who needs more money to measure up to today´s standards. The other question, and it is just as important to me, is: how do we communicate the competition to society? How do we find distribution channels? How do we find new formats? How do we convey the fascination with music, the competition itself, the emotions, how do we relate this to our audiences? How do we attract attention to the competition, and ultimately to the arts itself? Once we have found answers to these questions, I am highly confident that we will find a solution for the years after 2025.

WFIMC: For competitions linked to broadcasting stations, finding and working with partners and sponsors, especially with other media companies, is often more difficult because of all the restrictions and copyrights in place. Maybe this is exaggerated, but some of our member competitions enjoy millions and millions of viewers on their livestream, while the ones working with public broadcasters are struggling to increase their media coverage. Do you see solutions for this problem?

Björn Wilhelm: If I already had the answer, I would have given you a different presentation right now. But this is the first major area of work. We have now put our lawyers and copyrights specialists together with the artistic directors and the management to investigate what can be done. As a public institution, of course we cannot simply work with a pharmaceutical company to produce contents. The visibility of a partner must be established without calling our journalistic independence in question. But on the other hand, I very much believe that the integrity of the competition, its artistic excellence and its artistic values are an image factor that can be very exciting for cultural sponsors. 
I´ll be frank: Without public funding for the arts, we would not have the same diversity in this country. But we were not in a situation yet where we had to give this issue much thought. Now we are, and that´s not a bad thing. We need to find partners that suit us, that is the only condition. Partners who share the same values.
 

In addition to the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the two Bavarian Radio orchestras will take part in the semi-final and final rounds. Conductors Gábor Kali and Andrew Grams are responsible for the musical direction. And here we get to a problem that has been an issue for many years: The ARD competition is not a musical priority for its artistic leadership. Simon Rattle gave a brief video message at the press conference. But can anyone remember a chief conductor of the BR Symphony Orchestra conducting a winner´s concert, ever? 
Robert Braunmüller, Abendzeitung

WFIMC: Bayerischer Rundfunk has an incredible artistic potential with its orchestras, their guest artists, and now with Sir Simon Rattle as chief conductor. Why can this potential not be used appropriately for a showcase project like the competition? This may be exaggerated, but somehow the competition always looks a bit like an unwanted stepchild, with the orchestras not at their best and with little known conductors on the podium. Why can the artistic director not ask Sir Simon to help? It would also be in his own interest to find outstanding young musicians who might later on play in his orchestra.

Björn Wilhelm: Artistic and program sovereignty of our orchestras, our program planners and our editorial offices is a valuable asset for us. On the other hand, education, young artists, and closeness to the local audience are very important to Simon Rattle, who has really only started his first season in Munich. Let me put it this way: Give Simon the time to arrive.

©WFIMC 2023