Upbeat: On the map

ONE positive product of December's funding turnabouts is a full-scale campaign to get the music that isn't orchestral into the heart of national debate. First proposed in this column, the Main Music Agenda began life last week with a meeting at the Barbican which had some 40 representatives of a rare range of music in a state of unlikely single-mindedness. Next stop is an open session at the Royal Festival Hall's Chelsfield Room on 3 February, from 2pm.

It certainly makes a point that leading names have come together from new music and small-scale opera, the classical music of several continents and cultures, jazz and early music, folk and school music, youth and amateur music, across-the-board promoting bodies and concert halls - a point about the real nature of Britain's music-making as much as the funding issues (such as a 13 per cent cut for 'music projects and schemes'). Clearly there's everything to play for.