Music Association of Ireland

In May 1948 it was announced that a new body, to be known as the Music Association of Ireland, was being set up to promote classical music in Ireland.^[1][2] The new association had six objectives:

1. to further musical education
2. to improve conditions for composers and musicians
3. to help establish a national concert hall
4. to lobby on matters of music policy
5. to encourage musical groups throughout the country
6. to organise concerts and lectures.^[1]

A governing council of thirteen individuals was set up to oversee the running of the association. Among its members were composers, Brian Boydell, Aloys Fleischman, and Frederick May. A small management committee was also appointed comprising Olive Smith, honorary treasurer, and Michael McMullin, honorary secretary.^[1]

Six months after its formation the MAI had gained only eighty three members. Nevertheless, it immediately began to lobby government for greater financial support for live performances, particularly those given by the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra^[3]

In 1950 the MAI undertook its greatest challenge to date when it organised a festival of concerts and lectures to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. For several months, members raised funds^[4] and tried to source Baroque instruments, such as a harpsichord, not readily available in Ireland.^[5] The festival took place between September and November 1950 in various Dublin venues and featured local and international performers. For instance, English bass, Owen Brannigan, sang in the B Minor Mass, and the principal and second trumpeters of the London Symphony Orchestra were engaged to play the D trumpets in the same work.^[6] While individual aspects of performance were criticised, the initiative was generally welcomed.^[7]

When the MAI celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 1968, membership had risen to 600 and founder-member Brian Boydell expressed satisfaction with the progress made by the association in the fulfilment of its objectives.^[8] Under the enthusiastic leadership of Olive Smith, who chaired the association's management committee until 1978, the MAI undertook a variety of initiatives to promote classical music in Ireland.^[9]

In October 1967, the MAI set up a body named Ógra Ceoil ("Musical Youth") to encourage participation in music by young people.^[8] Members could avail of reduced rates for tickets to concerts and recitals and within a few months 800 young people aged between fourteen and twenty five had joined the new body.^[10] In January 1972, Ógra Ceoil launched the Irish Youth Orchestra at its inaugural concert in Trinity College, Dublin.^[11] The National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, as it is now known, continues to perform regularly in Ireland and abroad.

The MAI began its campaign for a national concert hall in 1951.^[12] In 1960, music critic Charles Acton put the weight of his prominent position at The Irish Times behind the effort. At that point, a brand new building was being mooted, to be located opposite Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin.^[13] In 1964, the government announced that a new national concert hall would be built in Dublin as a memorial to the late American president, John F. Kennedy.^[14] When, by 1973, no progress had been made, the association collected 10,000 signatures in support of a new concert hall and submitted a petition to the Department of Finance.^[15] Finally, in September 1981, the association's efforts were crowned with success when the country's new National Concert Hall opened in Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin.^[16]