Madam, - After a 21-year association with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland as a cellist, member of staff, orchestra manager and director, it is with a heavy heart that I have today resigned as a director of NYOI. On Wednesday, the board announced that the two constituent orchestras (National Youth Orchestra, for musicians aged 12 to 18, and National Youth Symphony Orchestra, aged 18 to 24) will be amalgamated into one orchestra, composed of musicians between the ages of 14 and 21 (see www.nyoi.ie).
On every level - artistic, financial, educational - I disagree with this decision. Joanna Crooks, general manager on a voluntary basis for 11 seasons, retired last August, having worked tirelessly, nurturing both orchestras, recruiting young musicians from all 32 counties, and arranging concerts all over the world, from the Berlin Konzerthaus to a school hall on the Aran Islands, from a performance with Maxim Vengerov in Limerick to Wagner's Ring Cycle in Ireland and the UK.
The board of the National Youth Orchestra has been engaged in a protracted recruitment process to appoint a new general manager since February 2006. The timing of this decision in April 2007, when the process is still incomplete, is astonishing. The abolition of one orchestra will deny 100 young Irish musicians the chance to rehearse and perform some of the great works of the classical repertoire, will restrict the artistic possibilities, and will severely limit opportunities to invite conductors and soloists of international repute to work in Ireland.
One has only to think about wonderful performances under the batons of Hugh Maguire, Albert Rosen, En Shao, Alexander Anissimov, Atso Almila and ask: how can this decision possibly "enrich further the nation's cultural life"?, as the announcement claims. - Yours, etc,
DONAGH COLLINS, Albion Road, London N16.