A Focus for New Music
ON a fine evening last month, the Contemporary Music Centre's new home in Dublin's cultural quarter, Temple Bar, was officially opened by President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. The building, decked out with a huge red banner proclaiming it as 'A Focus for New Music', looked smart and festive and the unusual presence of Gardaí (the Irish police) on the pavement outside indicated that something special was happening. Inside, the house had never looked so good, with flowers everywhere and all the rooms impressively clean and tidy. Even the paw prints left at the last minute by two enthusiastic police sniffer dogs failed to take the edge off the sparkle!
An important feature of the evening was the release of CMC's latest promotional CD, Contemporary Music from Ireland Volume Three. This 'musical calling card' contains recent works by twelve Irish composers and, thanks to a grant from the Arts Council, will be distributed free of charge to a broad spectrum of interest groups internationally (see further details elsewhere in this issue). The President and all the guests were presented with copies of the CD. And so with the formalities over, the party began (and continued late). For all of us who were directly involved in the project -- staff, board of directors, design and renovation team, and of course our partners in the Arts Council and Temple Bar Properties -- all the hard work seemed worthwhile when we saw in the reactions of our guests that we had achieved our goal: a real home for new music in Ireland.