Malcolm Pollock steps down as BFS Chair

It’s with sadness that we report that Malcolm Pollock has ended his term as Chair and member of the BFS Council due to health issues. Malcolm was Chair for three and a half years, but has been involved with the BFS since its earliest days - becoming the Society’s first Education Representative when it was founded in 1982. Over the years, he has held a variety of roles, while also championing music outside the BFS through a career in music services, as well as playing, conducting and teaching. The author of the popular Abracadabra Flute Book, in recent years Malcolm has also taken on the roles of event photographer and representative of the European Flute Council.

In the latest issue of Pan, we chat to Malcolm about his time at the BFS, his life in music and the challenges facing the 21st-century musician. Below are a selection of his answers - BFS members can read the full Q&A here.

Malcolm Pollock

What achievements are you most proud of from your tenure?

I think we understand our financial position much better now than we used to and I think we are better at asking the right strategic questions about where we go from here. I have been immensely proud of our two festivals in 2016 and 2018 at St John’s Smith Square: truly amazing showcases of the some of the best flute playing in the world today. Our annual competitions for young players always impress me and the top-quality adjudicators we manage to attract every year add so much value to the occasion.

How did your involvement with the BFS begin?

Trevor Wye encouraged me to attend the meeting at the Boosey and Hawkes factory in Edgware in 1982 when the society was founded and I became the first education representative on the Council. The first Chair was Christopher Hyde-Smith and John Francis was the first Secretary: we used to go to his house for meetings.

You are perhaps best known as the author of the Abracadabra Flute Book – can you tell us a bit about your career and involvement with music education?

I have spent my whole professional career working in music education in the state sector. ‘Abracadabra’ was published in 1990 and was really the result of a chance encounter with the then music editor at A&C Black. I’m very pleased (and pleasantly surprised) that the book is still so well used after all this time!

Apart from a short spell as Head of Music in a secondary school I have worked exclusively with music services (in Manchester, London, Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire), and the majority of this time was spent in management positions. In Gloucestershire I was head of the Music Service and involved for much of that time with the Federation of Music Services regionally and nationally. I’ve done a lot of conducting of youth orchestras, and a lot of orchestral playing in amateur and semi-professional groups, in addition to teaching the flute of course.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the 21st century musician?

Where do I start?! The new century is so challenging in so many different ways. The internet has changed our lives fundamentally, and it is getting harder and harder to earn a living performing music. People expect to access music for free and have no interest in the work which goes into producing the finished product. Spotify pays a maximum of $0.0084 per play to the holders of music rights (split between the record label, producers, musicians, songwriters etc.) Live music performances which make any real money for the performers are rare (with some notable exceptions including geriatric rock groups who became famous in the 1960s!)  So musicians have to be clever and versatile to survive.

In the Classical music world, we have fewer opportunities for musicians to make a living solely out of performing. To obtain a position in an orchestra as a wind player for instance has always been challenging: in the 21st century it is even harder. Some conservatoires are offering effective support to their students as to how to become more employable, some are not. There is a need to diversify your portfolio of skills, use social media effectively, and not be too restrictive and selective about what you want to do with your life.

Every musician, whether professional or amateur, whether teaching or playing, has to be an ambassador for the power of music, its potential to change lives.

The Council would like to extend their warm thanks to Malcolm for his tireless work over the last three and a half years.