Upwards of 20 Northern Ireland composers are facing the loss of representation by the Dublin-based Contemporary Music Centre (CMC), Ireland's national archive and resource centre for new music.
The withdrawal of service is to be discussed at a composers' meeting called by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) in Belfast today.
Irish composers North and South received an e-mail from the director of the CMC, Ms Eve O'Kelly, explaining that for six months from October next the CMC "will be unable to continue the promotion and documentation service on behalf of the community in Northern Ireland".
The composers affected will include Deirdre Gribbin (whose opera Hey Persephone! was premièred at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1998), the genre-crossing Brian Irvine (who won a BBC Jazz Award last year), and Elaine Agnew (whose Sounding the City commission for the opening of the Belfast Festival in 2002 was broadcast nationwide on BBC television).
CMC had for a number of years been seeking an increase in its revenue funding from ACNI, and the CMC board's unusual decision in relation to Northern composers came in the wake of its failure to secure any Northern funding for 2004.
Remarkable as it may seem, the CMC was not actually turned down for funding by ACNI. It simply missed the deadline for the receipt of applications. In her e-mail to composers, Ms O'Kelly said she took "full responsibility" for the missed deadline.
ACNI has been unable to give guarantees about funding in the future, as the funding relationship would now have to be re-established "from first principles".
Cross-Border Arts Council funding has been affected by the constitutional amendments made in connection with the Good Friday agreement. Before then the Arts Council in Dublin took account of the 32-county territorial claim by making awards and providing services to individuals born and working in Northern Ireland. Since the constitutional amendments, the Dublin Arts Council's remit has been more narrowly defined. But, said a spokesperson, the council had put no pressure on CMC in relation to any aspect of the services it was providing to Northern composers.
Because of equality legislation ACNI no longer provides existing clients with specific reminders of application deadlines. CMC is not alone in having missed the November date. Both the Ulster Youth Orchestra and Ulster Youth Choir also lost out. CMC, however, does appear to be the only music organisation affected which is proposing to cut its core services. Both the UYO and UYC have so far managed to bridge their funding gaps and maintain their regular activities.
The CMC received a 2004 grant of €341,000 from the Arts Council in Dublin and a much smaller £20,000 (€29,700) grant from ACNI the previous year. Although ACNI didn't fund CMC until 1992, the centre has, since its foundation in 1985, provided documentation in its archive as well as representation in its promotional work - including its successful website - to composers born anywhere in Ireland, as well as foreign-born composers resident in any part of the island for tax purposes.
The performing arts director of ACNI, Mr Philip Hammond - himself a composer - says ACNI will be trying to have some sort of alternative support service in place for Northern Irish composers by the beginning of October, when the current CMC service will cease.
CMC chairman Mr Joseph Ryan explained that the "CMC has continued to provide services through the current period in order to facilitate a solution that meets the ambitions of all parties". This results, he said, "not from any decision regarding an individual year's funding but out of a clearly signalled intention on the part of ACNI to make a fundamental strategic change".
That strategic change, however, has actually been fuelled by the CMC's missed application, and gained momentum through its withdrawal of services.
