Cambridge University Music Faculty plans to displace its own students by renting out its West Road Concert Hall to Kingsgate Community Evangelical Church every Sunday evening. This will be part of a five-year contract worth £35,000 per year.

The move will be hardest hitting on Cambridge University Music Society (CUMS), who have been told that they will be restricted to three Saturday night performances in the hall a year. It will also force the several world-class organisations who use the hall, such as the Endellion String Quartet, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Britten Sinforia, to re-arrange their schedules.

But while these professional organisations can fall back on other concerts elsewhere, CUMS is dependent on the hall for their funding and student music making.

Andrew Browning, President of the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra (CUCO) and Cambridge University Music Club (CUMC), impressed the financial implications that this move could have. He told Varsity that CUCO rely on the ticket revenues for funding, which are greatest at the weekend due to higher attendance. If Sunday evening is monopolised then it forces all events onto Saturday evening. However, since professional music groups are able to pay more money than the student music groups, this may result in the student musicians being “squeezed out”; this in turn would seriously diminish their funding.

Browning went on to highlight the positive relationship that student University music groups have with the Music Faculty and expressed the hope that this matter would be resolved in the students’ favour.

Anger has been levelled at the Music Faculty for sacrificing academic excellence for financial gain. Toby Chadd, former-Varsity Classical Music Critic, accused the Music Faculty of “selling itself out to the highest bidder over the academic, musical and intellectual needs of the University”. He also attacked the disregard which the rent of the Concert Hall showed to the “University and city’s need and privilege in having these world-class organisations performing in Cambridge on a regular basis”. Above all he expressed concern that “the University’s primary music society is being stopped from using the University’s concert hall when it needs to, because the hall prefers the cash of a Peterborough evangelical church to the music-making of its students”.

Angela Scarsbrook, member of CUMS I, expressed concern at the “restriction” that this move will place on University music societies. She highlighted the impact that this will have on rehearsal time, pointing out that the concert hall on West Road is the only room large enough for a full symphony orchestra. Sunday night is one of the most important times for rehearsals and its monopoly by Kingsgate Church will impede the ability of CUMS to practice .

At this stage University authorities are remaining silent. Cambridge University Music Faculty declined to make a statement until their Faculty Board Meeting, scheduled to take place next week.

John Willian, Chairman of Hazards Chase, the musicians management company in charge of the Endellion String Quartet, also emphasised the delicacy of the situation and did not wish to make a comment at this stage for fear of inflaming it further.

The Concert Hall is the only substantial auditorium in the University and as such has been used for a number of important events, such as the hosting of the Chinese Premier in February of this year and the broadcast of BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions a few weeks ago. This contract will prevent any event happening on a Sunday evening for the next five years.