4BR is joined by Matthew Dickinson — a professional percussionist since 1996 who has enjoyed a busy career as both a performer and teacher.

As well as long-standing associations with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, he has worked on numerous West End productions and became the percussionist for The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in 2018.

Worldwide support

Matthew has gained worldwide support after he highlighted the announcement that the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera will use a reduced orchestration of 14 musicians when it resumes performances in July — an almost 50 percent reduction in the 27-member pit orchestra used prior its temporary closure due to Covid-19.

News concerning the future of the show first staged in 1986 had circulated in many leading press outlets such as 'The Stage', after Cameron Mackintosh writing in The Evening Standard, had suggested Phantom had possibly closed permanently.

This was later stated as being incorrect by Jessica Koravos, the President of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group, and that the show was only being closed to allow works to be carried out to both its set and theatre, and that it would return unchanged using the work of the original creative team.

Acclaimed orchestration

However, in a joint statement from Cameron Mackintosh Ltd and the Really Useful Group it stated that the new West End production of Phantom will be (in their words) "using the acclaimed orchestration for 14 musicians that was created for the international productions of the show".

It went on to state that "...the orchestrations are just as thrilling and rich as the original but would not have been possible with the technology available in 1986."

They added: "The new Phantom orchestra will remain one of the largest in the West End — the orchestration featuring a contemporary line-up of top-flight soloists with modern instrumentation which will give this timeless score the freshness of a new musical to ensure that the music of the night will soar for decades more."

Keyboard technology

Phantom's new orchestration, prepared by the show's original orchestrators David Cullen and Lloyd Webber for a 2012 UK touring production that has since been mounted internationally, leaves the musical's original sound largely intact while using synth keyboard technology to reduce the amount of players necessary.

The news has been greeted with disbelief and concern — especially as the show's return in Broadway will accompanied by a 27 piece orchestra (the original was 29 players in 1986 with two player roles lost over the years).

the orchestrations are just as thrilling and rich as the original but would not have been possible with the technology available in 1986joint statement from Cameron Mackintosh Ltd and the Really Useful Group

Disappointed

The Musicians' Union General Secretary Horace Trubridge said the union was "sad and disappointed"that the band size is being reduced, whilst numerous freelance musicians and workers from the industry have poured scorn on what they see as a cynical cost-cutting exercise that has little regard for the future well being of professional musicians and their families at a time of great financial uncertainty.

Support has come from the professional Broadway musicians with AFM Local 802 President Adam Krauthamer stating that "Producers who take advantage of a worldwide pandemic in order to cut live music are cheapening their productions and robbing the audience of the full experience of musical theatre.

We must support those who make possible the musical theatre experience that we love."

Echoes

Critics say that the move has echoes of a similar pre-pandemic change to Les Misérables, which like Phantom is produced by Cameron Mackintosh.