Shock would be a mild description of the response to last week's loss by the National Chamber Choir of its artistic director, Celso Antunes, chief executive, Karina Lundström, and one of its board members, David Byers.
Lundström was one of the choir's founders and has managed it since it was set up in 1991. Antunes, appointed in 2002, transformed the choir from an honourably dull group that rarely lived up to its obvious potential into the most dynamic and forward-looking of performing ensembles that Ireland has ever known. His programming with the NCC has been unrivalled in its scope and daring, the choir regularly attracts the world's leading choral conductors for its concerts. And in losing Byers, a composer and choral conductor with a broad experience as manager and board member, the board has lost a member with wide and deep contact with the world of choral music.
The high artistic achievement of the 17-member choir has to date remained untainted by the internal struggle that has been taking place. That struggle centres on the appropriate response to the already implemented phased cutback of funding from RTÉ, the choir's largest funder after the Arts Council.
Remarkable as it may seem, in spite of the decline in funding from RTÉ, the NCC has not actually run up a deficit. The internal fighting has been about how to deal with the cutbacks that will take effect over the next two years. A consultants' report commissioned last year from Bonnar Keenlyside envisions commercial activity, including corporate entertainment, as an important part of the solution. The activities of Anúna appear to be the model for this idea, although the styles and repertoires of Anúna and the NCC could hardly be further apart. The whole point of Arts Council funding for a group like the NCC is to enable it to provide audiences and composers with a service that is not commercially viable.
The choir provided over 40 performances last year, including important educational activity as well as concerts, making it one of the most productive music groups the Arts Council has ever funded.
The feeling in the musical world is that the board has seriously discredited itself, and that the Arts Council will likely have to consider a National Theatre-style clean sweep and funding reappraisal to secure the choir's future.
Whatever way you look at it, the choir's five years under Antunes will be seen as a golden age for professional choral singing in Ireland. It is not easy to see where the choir will find a successor with the same sense of musical adventure, charisma and dedication.