Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 October 2018

Committee on Public Petitions

National Orchestras: Discussion

1:30 pm

Mr. Rory Coveney:

May I briefly add to that? The issue of sponsorship and commercial support is related to a clear future as well. An orchestra which is fully staffed, touring routinely and attempting more and more ambitious programming starts to become much more attractive to our sponsors as well. There is something of a virtuous circle here. If one gets a baseline level of funding that enables one to do very exciting things with two orchestras, other commercial opportunities open up. We have seen some of this in the concert orchestra in recent years. I am not sure if any of the members have been to the Jenny Greene gigs around the country, but they have been at the Live at the Marquee event in Cork four times now and are due back again. It is a 1990s dance retrospective with an orchestra, which is getting an enormous reaction. It is very different. It is not classical music per sebut it is a very popular use of a concert orchestra and an example of what is possible when one has a clear creative vision.