Arts Council Investment of €450,000 in Music Generation

Music Generation and the Arts Council are delighted to officially announce a new three-year partnership programme which will see an investment of €450,000 in funding to support the work of professional musicians in a range of ambitious music education programmes.

This exciting new Partnership is aimed at adding significant value to the current core tuition being carried out by Music Generation which is aimed at creating better access to high quality performance music education for children and young people.

Speaking about the new initiative, Imelda Dervin, Acting Head of Music and Opera with the Arts Council commented, “It is intended that children and young people will be provided with more rounded and fuller music education experiences by ensuring that they have opportunities to interact with professional musicians of outstanding calibre in a range of ways which take the form of music 'residencies'. Such residencies may encompass ambitious large scale performance projects, composition programmes or collaborative performance with an emphasis on teamwork between local and national partners.”

The new programmes will be developed and delivered by Local Music Education Partnerships established in Carlow, Clare, Cork City, Donegal, Laois, Louth, Limerick City, Offaly/Westmeath, Mayo, Sligo, South Dublin and Wicklow. Exciting programmes will be rolled out initially in Limerick City and Sligo. The much anticipated Music Generation Limerick City ‘Express Yourself Bus’ will host some of the country’s leading singer/songwriters on board to collaborate with young musicians while Music Generation Sligo will mount ambitious cross-genre composition and performance programmes featuring composer Neil Martin and internationally renowned ensembles West Ocean String Quartet and Dervish.

Eve O’Kelly, Music Consultant, has been appointed Programme Manager.

“We are delighted to embark on this exciting new Partnership with the Arts Council, which will create work opportunities for musicians and extend the quality and scope of performance music education experience for hundreds of children and young people”, commented Rosaleen Molloy, National Director, Music Generation. “This investment is a significant endorsement for the work of Music Generation from the statutory agency for the Arts and a significant development in furthering the Arts Council’s goals for Music Generation within the context of the National Arts in Education Charter.”

For further information contact Music Generation, email: info@musicgeneration.ie; telephone 01-4758454.

Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme. Initiated by Music Network and co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds and local Music Education Partnerships (MEPs), Music Generation helps children and young people access high quality performance music education in their own locality. Building upon original pilot programmes established in Donegal and Dublin City, Music Generation is established in 12 areas of the country - Carlow, Clare, Cork City, Donegal, Laois, Louth, Limerick City, Offaly/Westmeath, Mayo, Sligo, South Dublin and Wicklow. Some 18,500 children and young people are now accessing high quality performance music education through Music Generation with job opportunities created for 220 musicians.

Music Network established Music Generation on receipt of a €7m donation in 2009 from U2 and The Ireland Funds, following a ten year campaign for the development of a national system of music education in Ireland.

Music Generation works closely with the Department of Education and Skills (DES) who have committed to continuing to develop and sustain the Music Education Partnerships with Exchequer funding in future years when the donations cease. The DES will commence co-funding the initiative on a phased basis from July 2014, beginning initially in Louth, Mayo & Sligo.

Visit www.musicgeneration.ie for further information.

The Arts Council of Ireland is the Government agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. The Council recognises that the arts have a central and distinctive contribution to make to our evolving society. The agency was established in 1951 with a remit to stimulate public interest in and promote the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts, and to offer expert advice on matters related to the arts. W: www.artscouncil.ie.

Eve O’Kelly is a cultural consultant and, from 2011-13, adjunct professor of musicology at University College Dublin. A native of Cork, she holds BSc and BMus degrees from UCC and an MPhil by research from the University of London, where her thesis on the recorder as a modern instrument was subsequently published as a book (The Recorder Today, Cambridge University Press 1990). She is an experienced music educator, having spent ten years in London teaching recorder, both as a contemporary and a historical instrument, at every level from primary and secondary schools through specialised music schools, workshops and the adult education sector, including many summer schools in Britain, Ireland and the USA.

From 1990 until 2010 she was Director of Ireland’s Contemporary Music Centre, establishing it as the national archive and promotion agency for new music. She worked with the country’s leading composers, performers and arts agencies and played a key role in developing the profile of contemporary Irish music at home and internationally. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (London), an honorary member and former board member of the International Association of Music Information Centres, and a former Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the Arts, London.