Organists don't want to drop the lead

ArtScape: The 52nd Cork International Choral Festival opens at the City Hall on Wednesday with the music of composer John Rutter, uniting London's Joyful Company of Singers, the Brass Ensemble of the Irish Defence Forces school of music, organist Colin Nicholls and conductor Peter Broadbent, writes Mary Leland.

(Those who do not find their liturgical appetite fully satisfied by this performance can attend Rachmaninov's Vespers at the North Cathedral late on April 28th).

But this is music under threat. All this Easter-tide organists throughout Europe were wrestling with an unharmonious dilemma in the form of an EU directive to be introduced from July 1st banning the use of lead in electrical equipment, such as in circuit boards and in soldering. In an accident of definition, a measure aimed at mobile phones and computers hits the mighty organ. Organ pipes have to be soldered, and their construction, unchanged for many centuries, involves the use of a lead and tin alloy. As organist and choir master at St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, where the organ has 3,016 pipes (the one in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin has 4,000), Colin Nicholls worries that this suggestion of dangerous metals as part of their composition could be used as an excuse to get rid of some fine instruments.

Although Margot Wallstrom, European Commission Vice-President and propagator of the new law, has told organists and organ guilders, "You can fill all your churches with as many leaded pipes as you want . . . You can rest absolutely assured that the directive does not cover church organ pipes", in Britain the Institute of Organ Builders has been advised by that country's department of trade and industry that while lead may still be used for repairs, new organs must be treated as electrical equipment in which the use of lead will be banned. A dedicated campaign website, www.pipes4organs.org, asks for support.

Age of enlightenment

Almost May, and with it Bealtaine, the month-long countrywide celebration of creativity in older age. Described as Ireland's biggest arts festival by virtue of its length (a month of activity) and its scope (it's all over the country and this is its 11th year), last year there were an impressive 840 events countrywide and an audience of 35,000.

The festival is co-ordinated by Age & Opportunity, and the new artistic director and co-ordinator Dominic Campbell has this year taken an intergenerational focus, themed From Hand to Hand - The Creative Exchange. The festival is to explore the role older artists play in the transmission to younger artists of skills, styles and approaches within the arts, particularly in the traditional arts. Performances, conversations and classes will celebrate these strong intergenerational ties at the heart of artistic life, demonstrating a living link from today to the past. The events include theatre, literature, dance, film, storytelling, music, painting, sculpture and photography. One of the highlights is a series of From Hand to Hand concerts in 11 counties, featuring well-known younger musicians playing with an older musician they admire. Musicians involved include Joe Ryan (one of the great repositories of the traditional style of his native Co Clare), in his high 70s, who will be joined in Meath by young fiddler and flautist Michelle Foy, while Cork will see a performance by fiddlers Maurice O'Keeffe (86) and granddaughter Éibhlín. In Co Donegal Steve Cooney will join Tommy Peoples and Dermot Byrne for a night to remember.

The Bealtaine Conversations are with a series of artists whose work has inspired and defined the cultural landscape of Ireland. Jo Nichols will lead a three-day movement-based workshop for older people, and Veronica Coburn of Barabbas leads a clowning workshop, both at the Abbey. Co Donegal projects will include the creation of memory boxes that tell an individual's life story through memories and mementoes. And in Wexford, Sri Lankan storyteller Debbie Guneratne will be in residence in local libraries. In west Cork, Claymation is a stop-frame animation project with Skibbereen Day Care Centre and a team of artists, and in Waterford Olive Knox, lecturer at the National Gallery of Ireland, presents Art of the Mature Mind. The film The Philadelphia Story tours the country and the Bealtaine Writers' Group will be in session again. Information is available from local libraries and county council arts offices, or Bealtaine at Age & Opportunity, Marino Institute of Education, Griffith Avenue, Dublin 9. Tel: 01-8057709/ Lo-Call: 1890-506060/ E-mail: bealtaine@mie.ie Website: www.olderinireland.ie

Inform decision

Business2Arts has got funding from the Department of Arts for the first time, of up to €25,000 towards the development of its training programme for the arts.

The programme, Inform, set up in 1992 to fill the knowledge gaps in business skills of arts organisations, has helped many organisations develop a more professional arts management base. It is being expanded on the back of the funding to offer more regional courses and customised training. A not-for-profit organisation, it has up until now been funded solely by business members with a remit to promote and encourage creative partnerships between the business and arts worlds.

The Inform Training Programme offers courses in IT, management training, marketing, sponsorship-seeking skills, finance and customer care for arts organisations. Business2Arts chief executive Siobhan Broughan said the development funding was "a vote of confidence by the Minister" in its programmes "and an acknowledgment of the fantastic investment by our members in the growth and development of arts organisations in Ireland".

The new Midlands Partnership for Arts in Healthcare is looking for musicians for a pilot music programme in residential and daycare centres for older people in counties Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath. The musicians will form a panel of music facilitators for the first phase of the project (September 2006-2007). To be considered, musicians should have a knowledge, and preferably experience of working in a healthcare context, have strong leadership and team-building skills, have experience of working creatively with groups, be able to communicate effectively with older people, healthcare staff and management and have a good knowledge of age-related issues. Applications by 5pm on Friday May 5th to Shane Brennan, arts education organiser, Midland Arts, Old National School, Kinnegad, Co Westmeath. Tel: 044-79040 E-mail: midlandarts@eircom.net

* The May bank holiday sees the second outing for the Drogheda Arts Festival (April 26th to May 1st). The festival is building on its success of last year with a festival commission from Upstate Theatre, a production of Hades, marking the launch of an 18-month programme of work celebrating its 10th anniversary. Five visual artists from Co Louth will exhibit at Iomha 06, at the Droichead Arts Centre, part of a transnational cultural programme supported by Louth Leader; it'll be exhibited in Dundalk after the festival and then shipped to Lapua in Finland for exhibition in July. The Whalley Range All Stars from England, who brought a 30ft pig to last year's festival, return this year with a show called Bedcases. Other events include the Irish Chamber Orchestra celebrating Mozart at St Peter's Church of Ireland, Sharon Shannon's Diamond Mountain Sessions show, Jerry Fish & the Mudbug Club, street entertainment, music, a food and craft fair on Fair Street and the fireworks display on Sunday April 30th.

* The Arts Council has published Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children and Young People in the Arts Sector, aimed at assisting arts organisations in devising their own child protection policies and procedures. Arts Council-funded organisations delivering programmes for children and young people are required to have child protection policies and procedures in place by January 1st, 2007. The guidelines are in line with the Department of Health and Children's Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children. The council will continue to work with the arts community and the Health Service Executive (HSE) on implementation.

The publication is available free by contacting Audrey Keane at the Arts Council with full postal details. E-mail: audrey.keane@artscouncil.ie Tel: 01-6180256 Website: www.artscouncil.ie/library