Mr. Gerard Keenan:

I thank members for this opportunity to address them. Sing Out With Strings is the education project of the Irish Chamber Orchestra. In recent times, I have read and heard a great deal about how there are only two orchestras in the country but I can assure members that there are more than two. We are happy to be funded by An Comhairle Ealaíon, which is the Arts Council. We are based in the University of Limerick and resident at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance where we are lucky to have our own studio. We perform many concerts throughout Ireland. One of our key assets is our ability to tour all the regions, which we do twice a year, playing in at least eight to 12 regions. These would be much smaller places. For instance, last week we were in Kilkee on the Clare coast, Newport in County Mayo where we drew a fantastic crowd and then we finished in Monaghan. That is a bit of history showing where the Irish Chamber Orchestra comes from because it is at the core of this entire project. It is a top-class chamber orchestra. We work with some of the finest musicians in Europe and we tour an awful lot. We are one of Ireland's great cultural exports, and we are grateful for the support of Culture Ireland and so on. When members hear the jingle "Love your orchestras", they should remember that there are more than two.

We started Sing Out with Strings ten years ago and we are about to have our tenth anniversary concert next Wednesday. It has been a remarkable journey. We started off in two regeneration areas - Southhill and St. Mary's Park near the Island Field in Limerick. Island Field has the lowest transition rate to third-level education in the country at 2%. They are the sort of conditions we faced. It is tough enough. We have immersed ourselves in it and I am happy that there has been a great deal of progress albeit at primary school level, which has been important and which has had a huge impact on both communities.

The committee has a copy of our presentation so I will not read it verbatim. I would like to highlight a couple of issues. We established the programme ten years ago. It is based on the El Sistema model. We are members of Sistema Europe and have a trip to London coming up in August. We will bring a few students and there is great excitement about that. Sing Out With Strings involves 110 core teaching hours per week. Every year, approximately 300 students get lessons three times per week. Sing Out With Strings started because we wanted to start with something. Just launching people into instruments was difficult in the situation we were in and, therefore we spent significant time developing the children's own improvisation skills.

For instance, the children will write song lyrics and we get someone in the orchestra to provide the musical arrangements. Every year, the Irish Chamber Orchestra plays all of the arrangements at an event that is held in the university's concert hall. The children are thrilled with the event and we provide transport for all of their parents so they can all attend.

One of the greatest developments in the past ten years has been community involvement in this scheme. We have always deemed community involvement to be very important. It is all very fine to say, "We are the Irish Chamber Orchestra" and it is all bells and whistles when we come in. We have immersed ourselves in the project. We go into the community with the orchestra and have gradually introduced people to the university where we live and to the concert hall. Everyone involved has experienced a learning curve and the community has got a great deal from the project.

Let me outline another success. The children have all developed musically and two years ago they began studying for their Royal Irish Academy of Music examinations. I can confirm that no child has got less than a merit awarded in their music examinations. That may not sound like a lot but it is a great achievement for the children when one considers where they started from. They have a wonderful sense of achievement. They now regularly appear in Limerick, at the Dell company, at any openings and they have performed for the Lord Mayor. There is an endless list of events. All of this is possible due to private funding that we have raised and with great difficulty. We have some wonderful local donors that regularly support us but fundraising is a continuous battle. Sustainability is also a key issue. All of the organisations here sing from the same hymn sheet because we believe sustainability and growth are key to our success. We spend an awful of time fundraising and we are grateful to our donors. I want to let the members know that we require €200,000 every year in order to provide 300 children with music tuition. I can assure the committee that it is a very good investment, particularly when one considers how well the children have developed and what the scheme will save the State down the line.

As the scheme has existed for ten years, children have now moved through the entire cycle from junior infants class and right through to sixth class. We have been very lucky that a couple of patrons have given us money for legacy scholarships. That clearly shows that some of the children have shown a lot of talent. For example, we have one talented cellist and we have arranged a scholarship in order for that person to study with the principal cellist in the Irish Chamber Orchestra. That is a great chance for the young cellist.

It is important to evaluate one's work and we did. In 2016, Dr. Áine Mangaoang conducted the most recent evaluation and I will highlight a couple of points she made. Participating school staff who were interviewed believe the children benefit from participating in Sing Out With Strings classes, drawing from a broad range of experience over the programme’s eight years. This affirmed a multitude of positive outcomes such as individual cognitive and physical progress - such as motor skills or musical literacy - behavioural development, discipline, experiencing respect and tolerance, pride and self-confidence, patience, team work, learning the value of active public and civic engagement and a sense of calm.

The impact of all of that on schools is incalculable but it is amazing. To be honest, many teachers initially wondered who we were but now they realise that the programme has made their lives easier. Recently I heard a man called McCourt make the interesting observation that the creative mind will be needed a lot more in employment. He also said that not alone do we need to think outside the box, we need to create the box. All of these skills that we all teach together in music really helps that goal.

I will finish with a couple of quotes. One of the inspirational people we have met along the way is a woman called Jacinta MacNamara in St. Mary's school. The school did not have enough money and a choice had to be made to provide sports or music tuition. The school picked music. She said:"Sing Out With Strings has touched homes and families and is the greatest gift our school has been given.” Those sentiments keep us going and will continue to do so.

Another class teacher from Le Chéile national school, which is based near Southill, Limerick, stated "It is wonderful to see the quietest child open up during their music time and likewise the most obstinate child forget all their issues and behaviour problems to join in and engage in their music time.” Most of all it is what the children have said that is worth a listen. A girl called Hannah said: "I love Sing Out With Strings because it makes my soul feel like it’s free.” A girl call Holly said: "Sing Out With Strings means everything to me because I am not afraid no more.” One of the parents said:

My oldest daughter is now in Secondary School and is continuing to play due to the roaring success and [e]ffect the programme had on her. She plays the violin and I'm so grateful to Sing Out With Strings for awarding her the scholarship to the Limerick School of Music so that she can continue to thrive and help her on her road ahead with music. I feel so proud and this is all thanks to the programme. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity it has given her.

I have given a brief overview. I would now like to take the opportunity to thank all of the donors for their efforts. They made a separate contribution from the Government and official funding, which gave very little. I hope that we all get a proper music policy that is applied to primary schools and right through second level education. We have started a pilot scheme in a secondary school and we are working on an application to fund that. As we all know, music education definitively affects behaviour.

My group just happens to work in classical music and I come from a background where the only two kinds of music is good and bad music. In our small classical world, one never sees classical music broadcast on television. It is a shame that there is so little exposure to classical music. We may be a minority sport in lots of ways but we are as entitled to it as people are entitled to their rugby, football and everything else.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh, a cháirde.