Royal Irish Academy of Music
Registered Charity Number: 20002572
About the Charity
The Royal Irish Academy of Music is Ireland’s oldest conservatoire, ranked in the top 50 institutions in the world for the performing arts.
What our grant will help to fund
RIAM has set itself the task of defining its access agenda in a new and exciting way, considering whether, as a national institution, we can serve a wider demographic of society than our typical stakeholder. RIAM’s Co-Creative Music Composition Programme aims to overcome barriers to learn, perform and create music, that people living with disabilities very often encounter.
What are the arts? Who are they for? Who is a musician? What does an artist look like? These questions are at the core of this project which aims to develop working strategies and concepts for co-creation within any differently-abled musical context.
In this programme, five RIAM music students will come together with five members of the Open Youth Orchestra of Ireland (an inclusive national music ensemble for people living with physical and intellectual disability, founded by RIAM in 2019) under the guidance of composer Karen Power. Working collaboratively in a safe, welcoming, open environment of genuine co-creation, without pre-conceived notions of musical priority or hierarchy, this group will produce and perform a professional standard musical composition of high artistic merit.
The innovative aspect of the project is that the new composition will be created using ‘found sounds’ recorded in a site-specific location chosen in collaboration with Benefact Group.
“The Royal Irish Academy of Music is Ireland’s national music conservatoire with a diverse educational pyramid from Junior to Tertiary level. However, as a national institution we wanted to consider how we can serve a wider demographic that our current stakeholders. In particular we wanted to dismantle some of the barriers that prevent people living with disabilities from actively participating in and creating music. Our new Co-Creative Music Composition programme is a key part of this. We are so grateful to receive this grant from Movement for Good. Without it we would not be able to initiate this very valuable and necessary programme.”
Deborah Kelleher, Director, Royal Irish Academy of Music,
