ENCORE!
A report 20 years ago recommended shake-up of RTE orchestras. Little has happened since
A REPORT which recommended the National Symphony Orchestra be withdrawn from the control of RTÉ was ignored by the State broadcaster and the Government.
The Piano Report, commissioned by the first arts minister, Michael D Higgins, recommended that the orchestra should be run by an independent board and report to the minister over 20 years ago.
It also said the orchestra should tour nationally, give free concerts and go into schools – something it still doesn’t do.
The revelation comes as RTÉ has ordered another review of its orchestras, prompted by the broadcaster’s poor financial position.
Announcing the review, Aodán Ó Dubhghaill, RTÉ’s head of orchestras, said the review will look at ‘what our current and future audiences want... and how RTÉ’s orchestral music will be heard in venues, on screens and on radio right across the country.
‘RTÉ’s overall funding position is well known and it is incumbent on RTÉ to consider and assess its role in the provision of orchestral music as it plans for the future,’ he said.
However, critics have pointed out that Montrose bosses have ignored the findings of previous reports. The NSO and the Concert Orchestra take over 7% of the licence fee, costing €13million a year to run.
Answering a question in the Dáil in 1997 as to why the recommendations in the Piano Report had not been implemented, then-minister Higgins said: ‘I should make it clear the only recommendations contained in the Piano Report that fall within my responsibility suggest the NSO should be established as a company limited by guarantee under an independent board, answerable directly to me.
‘I have to say that I have yet to be convinced that the implementation of these recommendations would be in the best long-term interests of the orchestra.’
The Piano Report also said the NCO and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra should try to sell more CDs and tour internationally.
While the Concert Orchestra have been collaborating in recent years with DJ Jenny Greene at Electric Picnic and The Galway Arts Festival, according to their official list of events the orchestras are overwhelmingly Dublin-based.
Asked if there had been any nationwide tours this year, RTÉ would not respond. ‘We have no further comment to make until the current review is complete,’ said a spokesperson.
The orchestras cost €13m a year to run