I should add that last year, as part of our partnership with the Distil showcase, I tried to draw down some funding for a folk/classical outreach and touring project. The funders (who fund classical music development)decided that using a classical chamber group was not sufficiently orchestral, and would only agree if there were substantially more touring orchestral musicians involved and there was additionally a full orchestral concert in my venue at the end of the project. I could not make this work financially. The orchestral bods were also very sniffy aboutt he project being folk-led, and at the idea that they could learn anything from the folk side of things. It was the inherent assumption of superiority from the classical crowd that really rankled with me.

By the way, if I'd wanted to do this project with folk musicians alone, it would have cost around £5k. The costings with the classical orchestra involved came to almost £20k. Crazy.