The world reveres British music

I have just returned from the lovely Italian city of Rimini, where 300 local singers had gathered for a weekend of choral music under my direction, culminating in a concert in the grand Teatro. As they sang amid the chandeliers, gilded cherubs and plush velvet, I reflected that in all the recent discussion about tariffs, no one has yet highlighted the importance of music as a British export. As a representative of our choral tradition, I was treated with something like the reverence that would be accorded to a Brazilian footballer or a Russian chess player. My host, the regional choral supremo, knew all about our British choirs. His CD collection was filled with British choral recordings and he had just hosted the Tallis Scholars for a packed-out concert. From my travels, I can report that British musicians are held in high esteem around the world. There is particular interest in our cathedral and collegiate choirs because nowhere else is there anything quite like them. It is not just our Oxford marmalade and Marmite that are unique. Let’s celebrate – and support – something that we as a nation do exceptionally well.

I have started to look forward to Mondays. Cambridge, already a city of choirs, has given birth to a new one, the Schola Cantorum. Its 30 or so members sing the monastic office of Compline (rhymes with Tom Flynn) every Monday evening in various of the city’s churches and college chapels, and their radiant singing is balm to the soul. Compline is the office traditionally sung by monks or nuns just before they retire for the night, and in a community like Cambridge where many of us lead busy and stressful lives, it is a lifesaver. To gather by candlelight in a sacred space and lose oneself in the timeless beauty of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony is a healing experience.