Maoin Cheoil an Cláir
Clare Music Education Centre,
College Road, Ennis, Co. Clare
Ireland.
Phone & Fax : +353-(0)65-6841774
Maoin Cheoil an Chláir is now in its
eight year in Clare. In that time it has come from nothing to a school of over 500
students, with twenty teachers offering between them over thirty courses of study in both
traditional and classical music.
Based in Erasmus Smith House in Ennis, a
large, solid, impressive college building dating from the 1770s, it has for its auditorium
an acoustically excellent chapel built in 1950. This asset combined with its position on
an easily accessible but quiet street makes it arguably the best music school location
anywhere in Ireland.
Maoin Cheoil an Chláir was set up with
a grant from the European LEADER scheme, which combats rural decline, as a model for a new
style of music school suitable for areas where there is a local musical culture to be
cherished. Up until not long ago, the arrival of a music school in a country town could
have been seen as a direct threat to whatever traditional music was prevalent there. In
the old days a sort of "universal conservatory style" would inevitably have been
the only thing taught at such a school, and local musical lore with its own repertoire,
style and inflections would have been severely discouraged, if not banished altogether.
Things are changing in musical politics,
and Ireland is at the forefront of those changes. The unchallenged position of the
"universal conservatory style" has now been softened, even in the big
conservatories throughout the world, many of which now incorporate "early-music"
departments where an entirely different set of musical values from the main stream is
taught. Instead of, as expected, the fabric of music education becoming compromised by
allowing this contrast to exist, the effects have been healthy and stimulating for
everyone involved. In Maoin Cheoil an Chláir traditional and classical lessons take place
side by side, with specialist teachers for each discipline, and while no diluting of one
form or another is entertained, many students find no trouble in crossing over between the
styles.
A major breakthrough in lrish music
education came some twenty years ago when Mícheál
Ó Súilleabháin made it possible for students from a purely traditional-music
background to gain access to third level music study. This began in University College Cork, and
continues both there and at a higher level at the University of Limerick, where Mícheál
Ó Súilleabháin is now Professor of Music and head of the Irish World Music Centre.
In 1992 Fr Harry Bohan of Shannon, Co
Clare, contacted Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and told him of his plan for an inclusive
Music School. The two found their ideas converged, and they agreed in seeing such cultural
development as at the root of all other developments, economic and social. Mícheál
agreed to chair the enterprise, wrote a description and assembled committees to develop
the plan and to appoint a Director. Andrew Robinson was appointed Director in 1993 and the
school opened in October of that year.
Andrew Robinson, from Dublin, taught classical guitar and examined for the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and directed early-music ensembles including The Consort of St Sepulchre; he also conducted Youth Orchestras in Dublin, and transcribed Irish traditional music for the book The Northern Fiddler, while working as a stringed-instrument maker. Since coming to Clare and opening Maoin Cheoil an Chláir he has founded and directed The Clare Orchestra, and also the Ceol Miners, 1997 Irish champion barbershop quartet. In February 1998 Andrew Robinson handed over the Directorship of Maoin Cheoil an Chláir to Dr Colette Moloney, whose major study of the 18th century Irish harp music "Bunting Collection" was published early in 1998.
As of October 20th 1999 Tracy Smurthwait has taken over the position of Director of Maoin Cheoil an Chláir.