Music and song filled the halls of Brussels Midi station on Friday morning as the Brussels Groove Collective gathered to display the message that musicians and artists from the United Kingdom are still welcome in Belgium, despite the ever-nearing reality of Brexit.
Led by Pete Churchill, Professor of Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music in London, about 20 people, accompanied by a piano, spent the morning singing songs about migration, brotherhood, sisterhood and solidarity at the entrance to the station on Victor Horta Square.
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The Brussels Groove Collective was led by Peter Churchill, Professor of Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music, on the piano. Credit: Fabien Degryse/Facebook. [/caption]
The collective, a branch of the French-speaking Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, expressed its solidarity with musicians, as people are increasingly uncertain what Brexit, set to take place on 31 January, will mean for musicians, both inside and outside of the U.K.
“I just keep buying my tickets for the Eurostar, but the future does not look clear. No one can tell me what it will be like in a year," Churchill, who travels to Brussels twice a month to teach, told Nieuwsblad.
“Before the United Kingdom joined the European Union, as an artist you had to apply for a visa for every European country. Perhaps musicians will now be deterred from coming [to Europe]," Churchill added.
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times
