Music Alliance Ireland/Comhaontas Ceoil na hÉireann, a new group of national music organisations and companies, will host its first public meeting and launch on Thursday 28 April as part of the New Music Dublin festival.

The group was formed at the beginning of the pandemic to establish a collective voice for the music sector and has been involved in a number of advocacy campaigns since.

The current members are the Association of Irish Composers, Contemporary Music Centre, Crash Ensemble, Diatribe Records, Improvised Music Company, The Journal of Music, Kirkos Ensemble, Music Network and Trad Ireland/Traid Éireann. The group meets ten times a year and is open to new members.

The public meeting and launch will take place at 11.30am–12.30pm in the Iveagh Room (the room behind the Terrace restaurant), in the National Concert Hall on the first day of New Music Dublin.

Music Alliance Ireland was initiated in the spring of 2020 by Neva Elliott, formerly CEO of Crash Ensemble, and Aoife Concannon of Improvised Music Company, in partnership with the Arts Office of Dublin City Council. The group has since developed six main aims, as follows:

1. To establish a national network and voice for music organisations and musicians in Ireland;
2. To advocate for support and policies for music at a national level;
3. To work for the establishment of a music hub (a space for rehearsal, collaboration, offices, equipment, recording, storage and performance) in Dublin and equivalent spaces in other centres around Ireland; 
4. To campaign for proper pay for musicians;
5. To further the provision for music from Ireland in Irish broadcasting and media; and
6. To support the development of the Irish independent record label sector.

The group has already published a number of submissions advocating for the music sector, including submissions to the Arts Council’s music policy, the Future of Media Commission, RTÉ Lyric FM, the Dublin City Council Cultural Infrastructural Study, the Dublin City Development Plan, and the Basic Income for the Arts pilot. 

The group’s current chair is Toner Quinn, editor of The Journal of Music. The project manager is Neva Elliott.

Commenting on the first public meeting and launch, Quinn said:

A national network and voice for music organisations and musicians in Ireland has been needed for many years. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Music Alliance Ireland/Comhaontas Ceoil na hÉireann has been meeting online to explore what a national network could look like and how it could serve the music community. This public meeting and launch is about updating the music community about our work so far, and listening to their suggestions about how we could develop further. 

Following the meeting at New Music Dublin, there will be further meetings around the country, details of which will be announced in due course on the Music Alliance Ireland website.

For more, visit https://musicallianceireland.ie/ or www.newmusicdublin.ie/music-alliance-ireland-public-meeting.