Saving classical music from coronavirus

As the classical music world wrestles with the problems facing live music performance (‘We could go to the wall in 12 weeks’ – are we just going to let classical music die?, 9 June), is this the time to launch a national music trust? A glance at the National Trust’s annual accounts shows what can be achieved by modest charitable contributions. In 2019, annual subscriptions to the National Trust for England and Wales came to £243,425,000 from 2.73 million members. A UK-wide music trust would enable everyone committed to classical music to contribute to its survival.

Unlike art galleries, the National Trust and other cultural organisations, which give free access for members to sites and events, there has never been such an obvious benefit in classical music. But with a multitude of performances on the internet, there is now a blueprint for a programme that could be made available to members of a music trust.
Peter Martindale
Grantham, Lincolnshire

• I have become depressed by the Friday film and music section in G2, where classical music is lucky to get a paragraph, so how refreshing to have an article on the catastrophic effect of the virus on classical music. But I am intrigued by Charlotte Higgins’ notion that “the immediate future for classical music may be radically local, with small groups of musicians … outside of traditional concert halls”. There are many classical music festivals all over the country in churches and local venues. But the problem with social distancing is also acute. We, at Concerts at Cratfield, have had to cancel this summer’s season as we know that in our small church, packed pews are not an option and any significant reduction in audience would not pay our way.
Peter Baker
Concert organiser, Saxmundham, Suffolk