Dear Sir/Madam,
Only days following the launch of the book Different Voices, which highlights as a central theme the bias against music among cultural commentators and curators, The Irish Times announces Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks – a major cultural curation covering the last 100 years. The project excludes music. As my letter highlights, this is not an isolated occurrence but an ongoing practice of cultural partitionism, which continues to negatively affect the reception, promotion and understanding of Irish classical/art/contemporary music both here and internationally.
We really cannot allow this official rewriting of Ireland’s cultural history to continue without highlighting to the curators of Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks that a tremendous body of world-class Irish music has been composed within the period of the project and that it represents an extraordinarily rich engagement with Ireland – an entire body of cultural expression of the highest artistic degree cannot and should not be ignored.
With this in mind, I wish to send the attached letter to The Irish Times and to the directors of the Royal Irish Academy. It is of the utmost importance that those of us in the music sector (be it performance, composition or education) are allowed to take our place in the cultural consciousness of this country. I would be most obliged if you would give this letter your imprimatur. Your signature will greatly enhance our call for cultural recognition.
Yours sincerely,