Music Generation appoints Eve O’Kelly to the role of MEP Support and Development Manager

Monday 12 September, Dublin: Music Generation is delighted to announce the appointment of Eve O’Kelly as Music Education Partnership (MEP) Support and Development Manager. This new senior role within the team at Music Generation’s National Development Office will be key in the implementation of its new Strategic Plan (2016 – 2021) and in its plans for expansion.

Eve O’Kelly is a cultural consultant and in that capacity has been contributing to the work of Music Generation over the past three years. In this new full-time position, she will work more closely with the local MEPs and the National Development Office to sustain, build and support the provision of high quality performance music education for children and young people in existing and new areas of the country.

Welcoming the appointment, National Director Rosaleen Molloy said: “We are delighted that Eve O’Kelly takes up this new senior position on the team at an exciting stage in the development of Music Generation. Her achievements to date coupled with her in-depth knowledge of the sector and significant expertise in music development and leadership will make an extraordinarily valuable contribution to the organisation and to the music education landscape in Ireland. We very much look forward to working with Eve as Music Generation embarks on its next phase.”

Eve O’Kelly said: “Music Generation is, for me, the single most important initiative in music in Ireland in my lifetime. This post brings together all my prior experience in music education and music development and I am delighted to be working alongside the exceptional teams in the National Development Office and around the country.”

A native of Cork, Eve O’Kelly 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, a former visiting research fellow at the University of the Arts, London, and was adjunct professor of musicology at University College Dublin from 2011 to 2013.

Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, initiated by Music Network and co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships. Currently established in 12 regions of Ireland (Louth, Mayo, Sligo, Cork City, Laois, Wicklow, Carlow, Limerick City, Offaly / Westmeath, Clare and South Dublin), the programme provides high-quality, subsidised performance music education to more than 38,000 children and young people annually who would not otherwise have the choice of access or the chance to participate. Since its formation Music Generation has created more than 350 employment opportunities, mainly for musicians who deliver over 99 different programmes in 610 tuition centres. Music Generation focuses on performance music education – that is vocal and instrumental tuition, encompassing all music genres and all types of instruments and vocal styles, from ukulele groups to rock bands, choirs, orchestras, composers’ clubs, rock schools, hip hop squads, traditional Irish music ensembles, rap groups, song-writing sessions and more.

//ENDS

Media Contact
Aoife Lucey (Communications Manager, Music Generation)
aoife@musicgeneration.ie
+353 1 475 8454 / +353 85 741 5171

NOTES TO EDITORS

Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, initiated by Music Network and co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.

Music Generation believes in every child and young person’s musical potential and their innate artistry, that it is every child and young person’s right to have the choice of access and the chance to participate as a musical citizen and that music doesn’t just change lives, it transforms lives. The programme focuses on performance music education – that is vocal and instrumental tuition, encompassing all music genres and all types of instruments and vocal styles, delivered by skilled professional musicians interacting in an inspirational way with children and young people.

Music Generation was made possible by a €7m philanthropic donation from U2 (€5m) and The Ireland Funds (€2m) which was gifted to progress the implementation of Music Network’s Feasibility Study for a National System of Local Music Education Services. This was the largest ever philanthropic donation to music education in Ireland in the history of the State.

Currently Music Generation local Music Education Partnerships (MEPs) are established in 12 areas of the country: Carlow, Clare, Cork City, Laois, Limerick City, Louth, Mayo, Offaly / Westmeath, Sligo, South Dublin and Wicklow. These programmes, formed during Phase 1 of Music Generation (2010 – 2015), are co-funded by Government through the Department of Education and Skills (DES) and matched on a 50/50 basis by funding generated by MEPs, ensuring a long-term and lasting outcome from U2 and The Ireland Funds’ philanthropic giving.

Phase 2 of Music Generation has been initiated through a further €3m donation from U2 (€2m) and The Ireland Funds (€1m) in 2015. This gift, together with a $1m donation by The Stavros Niarchos Foundation in May 2016, will enable the expansion of the programme into new areas of the country between 2016 and 2020. The Department of Education and Skills has pledged its commitment to sustaining co-funding for Phase 2 together with local MEPs into the future, from 2020. www.musicgeneration.ie