Madam, - Letters to this page bemoaning the effective disbandment of the junior section of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland raise many relevant issues in the context of your coverage of Culture Matters, the recent seminar run by the Council of National Cultural Institutions.
It is interesting that other than letters to The Irish Timesfrom people with links to the youth orchestras, there has been no media coverage - to my knowledge - of these radical changes. This is symptomatic of where the problem lies.
In Wednesday's Irish Times, Arminta Wallace asked: "Does culture matter, and if so, why?" She reported that the CNCI seminar urged political parties to make culture an election issue. The thought that classical music might be an issue for the majority of the population or become an election issue is currently so far from reality that, unfortunately, it is laughable.
The board of the NYOI has announced that one of the reasons for its decision is that "recruitment of sufficient players, of the requisite standard, to support two orchestras - particularly in the string sections - has become a significant challenge, especially in recent years". Surely such a lack of sufficient players is exactly why as many opportunities as possible are needed for young musicians. Can you imagine a similar statement from the GAA or the IRFU: "Due to the lack of good junior players we have decided to abandon youth football"? There would be national outcry.
The lack of a coherent national music education system, described recently at an Arts Council forum on promoting music as "the elephant in the room", is at the centre of the problem. While it has never been the role of the youth orchestras to fill the vacuum created by this lack, the NYOI has been one of the pillars of practical musical education in Ireland. To reduce its role is further to marginalise music in Irish society.
At a time when the Government has made the single largest financial commitment ever to music in Ireland with the announcement of the redevelopment of the National Concert Hall, it is alarming to consider that a major resource for creating potential audiences is being lost.
Music education, including the opportunity of playing in a National Youth Orchestra, is the major factor in developing an audience for symphonic repertoire, the backbone of programming at any great concert hall. The vast majority of young concert-goers at the National Concert Hall are people who have performed with one or other of the National Youth Orchestras and have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to develop an interest in this music.
In July, 2006, in an Irish Timesreview of a performance by the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland (under-18s), Michael Dungan remarked: "It's sobering to reflect on how these talented and musically developed players are virtually all drawn from a privileged sub-section of Irish youth whose parents can support them with time and financing. Thousands more equally musical children enjoy no such advantages. Until there is real and meaningful music education for every child in this State, youth orchestras of this calibre will remain a source of pleasure and inspiration that is unduly rare."
So now, instead of making these opportunities more widely available, a decision has been made to make this source of inspiration even rarer.
The chairman of the CNCI, Aongus Ó hAonghusa, was quoted on Wednesday saying: "It's not about money - it's about joined-up thinking." Indeed! But when will that start? - Yours, etc,
GAVIN O'SULLIVAN, Aughaloughan, Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan.