Director, Bbc Singers

Package Description

Ref: 13203

Band: F
Contract type: Continuing Contract
Location: Maida Vale, London
Salary: £70,515 - £80,515 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits - We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

Freelancers are eligible to apply for an internal role if they are on a Worker Contract and they have worked continuously for 6 months. If they have worked for less than 6 months continuously or have a break of 3 weeks or more between engagements, they must seek Divisional HR approval to apply for an internal role prior to submitting an application.

If they are unsure which contract they are on, they can speak to their booker or the HR BP, however if it helps - both a PAYE freelance or Modus Gross contract is considered a Worker contract and covered by the Worker terms foundhere.

Job Introduction

The BBC Singers is an ensemble that is central to the BBC’s ambitions in classical music. The new Director will have the opportunity to build their long-term future on the strong foundations of their excellence, international reputation and audience reach, joining the group as they celebrate their centenary.

The BBC’s Value for All strategy sets out the context of the ensemble’s work as a public service broadcast ensemble with high quality, commercial ambition and digital reach for audiences locally and globally in an organisation that prides itself on being a great place to work. The BBC’s classical review of May 2022 emphasised the importance of the BBC’s ensembles to the BBC and the wider sector in the UK.

The BBC ensembles collectively are working to open up the sector to new talent and increase their role in music education, doing this through working more in partnership and being innovative in their approach.

Main Responsibilities

• Provide leadership for the BBC Singers to ensure the highest standards in artistic, commercial and educational work for the group
• Maintain excellent working relationships with the Head of Orchestras and Choirs, Controller BBC Radio 3, Director of Planning, BBC Proms and editorial leaders to ensure the ensemble's responsiveness to radio, television and online plans and opportunities.
• Develop and maintain appropriate networks and contacts, including festival directors, record companies, concert promoters, venue managers, artists’ agents and any other individuals or organisations that will help further the aims of the ensemble nationally and internationally.
• Promote and advocate for the BBC Singers, raising the profile locally, nationally and internationally.
• Maintain a close working relationship with the titled conductors to promote the artistic excellence of the ensemble, ensuring the best singers are recruited and retained.
• Ensure the effective management of the singers’ contracts and represent the group’s management in national and local negotiations with the Musicians’ Union.
• Promote diversity and inclusion in all the ensemble’s activity including repertoire, recruitment, education and audience development, ensuring that all colleagues are aware of inclusion issues and that this is integrated into all aspects of the business.
• Manage the finances of the BBC Singers, working with finance colleagues to ensure the group operates within the financial context of the BBC, whilst bringing in income to support the activity of the group and ensure its long-term sustainability
• Lead the management and production team for the BBC Singers, working as a member of the team of ensemble Directors at the BBC to ensure BBC employees and freelance colleagues at the BBC Orchestras and Choirs are well supported and able to deliver their best work whilst working for the BBC

Are you the right candidate?

The successful candidate will have a deep and broad knowledge of choral music, repertoire, artists and education through choral singing; a passion for the BBC’s role in developing and growing opportunities for audiences to hear the BBC Singers in the UK and internationally, and a deep interest in developing talent both within the ensemble and in the communities in which they work. In a challenging financial environment we are also looking for a Director with strong commercial credentials who can develop the income streams in the UK and internationally and who has the vision and the resilience to lead change, developing these new ways of working.

They will have a commitment to delivering a compelling artistic vision and excellence in all aspects of the ensemble’s work; an in-depth understanding of the UK’s music education and performance sectors and the unique role required of public service broadcast ensembles; excellent business skills, combining commercial flair alongside the ability to optimise the role of the ensembles within the BBC itself.

The Director will have experience of managing people; management and production teams, artists, collaborators, stakeholders, ensuring that the musicians and staff continue to remain valued, promoting the BBC as a great place to work in order to attract highly talented individuals to join our team. They will build and develop partnerships locally and globally, bringing innovation and creativity to educational, artistic and commercial collaborations, working to open up the choral sector to new talent, audiences and opportunities.

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.