Why we don't put all our eggs in the freelance basket!

As we at Wren Music prepare for our 30th anniversary, I was asked by an external colleague ‘Why do you bother with Wren? Why don’t you all just go freelance?’ Which got me thinking – why not?

It seems to be the conventional wisdom that musicians working in education and the community have a freelance existence.

There are a number of reasons why Wren employs musicians on our core staff.

In the early 80s when Paul Wilson and I were setting up Wren, we often heard ‘we book Wren because we know who we’ll see and that it will be good quality’. So the ethos of having a core team of familiar and excellent deliverers has remained through our expansion.

Giving employed musicians extensive training in the ‘Wren way’ means that as an organisation we can offer a consistent level of quality, at the same time as allowing individuals to develop their own style of delivery.

This team approach also means we can be confident of the cover provided to the participants in our regular programme if one of us is invited away for a residency, a commission or a national tour.

Furthermore, we remain excellent practitioners because, with musicians on the books, it is not a financially heavy decision for us to take a day out to share practice, learn from each other and have a jam!

All members of staff attend the Trustees’ Retreat and the input of the music staff is invaluable in deciding our strategic direction, making Wren truly artist led.

My mother was a staunch trade unionist: a trait that I have thankfully inherited and put to use as chair of the Musicians Union Folk, Roots and Traditional Music section. I am proud to be able to offer Wren’s musicians the security they need to get a mortgage and be able to take time from their working lives to have a family.

We do have a ‘pool’ of casual freelance musicians who enjoy regular and one-off work from us – but the benefits of having a core team of artists are crucial to the way Wren Music works.