U2 Donate 5M Euro to Music Education
Music education in Ireland is to benefit from a substantial philanthropic gift of €5 million by U2 along with a further €2 million pledged by the Ireland Funds. The donation is to allow a national system of music education to be rolled out between 2010 and 2015 by Music Network.

Music Network was established by the Arts Council in 1986 to make high-quality live music widely available. It organises several national tours annually, but it has also been at the centre of a campaign to raise awareness of the value of music education, and it has developed a model for a system of local music education services which it detailed in a 2003 report. The model sets out to make music education available to all children of the state irrespective of their geographical location and their social and economic circumstances. Subsequent to the report, while the model was piloted successfully, there was not the political will for its full implementation. This announcement therefore represents a significant step forward in developing the model and the music education infrastructure of Ireland.

The Edge, speaking on behalf of U2, said, ‘Being around music at a young age was important for us and we were lucky to have it at school. We had been looking for some time for a way to get involved in an initiative in music education in Ireland. After talking to various people in Ireland about what to do, we came to the conclusion that the Music Network scheme is really well thought out and that we, in partnership with the Ireland Funds, should just get behind it.’

Deirdre McCrea, CEO of Music Network commented: ‘This gift allows us to implement a planned, integrated approach to music education at a national level so that the potential and talent of our young people can be developed. The roll-out of our model will make an important contribution to music in Ireland, and to educational provision generally.’

The Ireland Funds will part-finance the scheme and is beginning a campaign to raise €2 million. According to Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chair of the American Ireland Fund, ‘Our goal is to stimulate philanthropy in Ireland and the scheme falls under two of our funding priorities – education and culture. We are thrilled to be part of a project, which will bring the Music Network Scheme nationwide. It is a proven success and has wide-ranging support from Government as well as the music education establishment. We believe that the programme will make a huge contribution to music education in Ireland.’
musicnetwork.ie

The Lebrecht Interview
A new series of The Lebrecht Interview, eight 45-minute one-to-one conversations between writer, broadcaster and critic Norman Lebrecht, and renowned classical music performers, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in August and September. Lebrecht’s latest book is entitled The Life and Death of Classical Music in which he documents the rise of classical music recording in the twentieth century and argues that it has now reached its end point. Interviewees in the radio series include violinist Hilary Hahn (who regularly publishes her own interviews and thoughts on music in her online journal at hilaryhahn.com), legendary pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, whose recordings have earned him five Grammy awards, Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and author of The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations, and principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic Christian Thielemann. All the interviews will be available as podcasts.
bbc.co.uk/radio3/lebrechtinterview

Balcony TV Relaunched
BalconyTV.com, which features new and established bands and solo artists performing on balconies in Dublin, London and Hamburg, has relaunched its website. With an archive of over 2,000 performances, and six million views to date, the website was previously nominated for Best Viral Content at the 2008 Webby Awards.

Asked by The Journal of Music how the idea started, co-founder Stephen Regan stated, ‘Three years ago, myself and my two flat-mates were having a cup of tea in our apartment on Dame Street, Dublin. It was a sunny day, and we jokingly pondered how we could better use out of our balcony, as we never really did, despite the fact that we had a great view. The idea came from there. We didn’t think much would come of it.’ The idea however soon spread to London and Hamburg: ‘We have been contacted by people in so many cities all around the world interested in BalconyTV. Hamburg and London have worked out thus far.’

Artists are booked by getting in touch with BalconyTV via email and through MySpace. The new website will have more content including music news, reviews, blogs and interviews. As regards how the website is going to generate income, O’Regan states: ‘Ah, the big question. Well up until now, BalconyTV has been just an idea that seems to have had legs of its own. We will try a few things in the months to come, to give it a proper base to develop further. The funny thing is that in the time BalconyTV has been around, we’ve seen other music media such as State magazine, Channel 6’s music video show NightShift and the digital music channel Bubble Hits come and go. So we obviously are doing something right.’
balconytv.com

Masters of Tradition
The Masters of Tradition festival, taking place in Bantry, County Cork on 12–16 August, will this year feature a performance by singer and songwriter Christy Moore. Moore, whose most recent recording, Listen, was released in April of this year, will be performing on Friday 14 August at 10.30pm in the Níos Deanaí (‘Later’) slot. Curated by fiddle player Martin Hayes, the Masters of Tradition festival is now in its eighth year. Hayes will open and close the festival, as well as participating in a special late-night, candlelit session. Other musicians featured include Kevin Crawford of Lúnasa, John Flanagan, Steve Cooney, Louise Mulcahy, John Spillane, Máire Ní Chéileachair, Niamh Parsons, Seán Ó Sé, Peadar Ó Ríada and John and Jacinta McEvoy. There will also be a workshop for young musicians in St Brendan’s Church on 15 August, which will be led by Maura Walsh, Tina McLoughlin, Máire Ní Chéileachair, Damien Mullane, Aoife Granville and Eamonn Cotter, catering for concertina, tin whistle, accordion, fiddle and flute players as well as singers.
westcorkmusic.ie

Hear and Now
Hear and Now, BBC Radio 3’s contemporary music series, has five themed programmes in August. 1 August features Italian music from Gervasoni, Casale, Sciarrino and Nono; 8 August is a portrait of Berlin-based Korean composer Unsuk Chin; 15 August features the music of Scottish composer James MacMillan, with the composer conducting the BBC Philharmonic; 22 August presents the world premiere of Michael Finnissy’s The Transgressive Gospel, performed by Kate Westbrook and Richard Jackson (vocals) and the Ixion contemporary music ensemble, and conducted by the composer at the 2009 Spitalfields Festival in London’s East End; and 29 August features music from the 2008 and 2009 Sonorities festivals in Belfast, including works by Michael Alcorn, Ed Bennett, Piers Hellawell, and Louis Andriessen, performed by the Ulster Orchestra under Fergus Shiel and Gavin Maloney. bbc.co.uk/radio3/hearandnow

Arts Council Events Website
The Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon has launched a free on-line events guide to music and the arts in Ireland. Events can be searched by county, by month or by category. To submit your music events visit events.artscouncil.ie/submitevent.php and phone the Arts Council (01) 618-0200 to obtain a username and password. events.artscouncil.ie

Music Capital Scheme
Music Network has announced the second round of the music capital scheme, which provides funds for the purchase of musical instruments. In 2008 a total of €347,000 was awarded to forty-one individuals and organisations. In 2009 the total fund amounts to €113,000. The scheme is open to two types of applicant: the majority of the funding will be go towards instrument banks for non-professional ensembles such as brass bands, youth orchestras and community music groups; the remaining funding will provide up to 50% of the cost of high-value instruments for individual professional musicians. Last year’s scheme attracted 298 applications with a value of €2,200,000. The deadline for applications in this round is 2 November 2009.
musicnetwork.ie

French Connection
This year’s annual BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concerts series will feature the Ulster Orchestra performing music by French composers, as well as a celebration of five Irish pianists – Philip Martin, Finghin Collins, John O’Conor, Hugh Tinney and Michael McHale – and a new work by Northern Irish composer Ian White. The lunchtime concerts take place every Tuesday throughout August at 1.05pm, and Friday night at 7.45pm in the Ulster Hall. The series begins with the first broadcast of a recently re-discovered work by Debussy, his cantata Le Gladiateur for soprano, tenor, baritone and orchestra. For complimentary tickets for these concerts please log on to bbc.co.uk/ni/ tickets or phone + 44 370 901 1227.
ulster-orchestra.org.uk

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