Minister Josepha Madigan today, (Wednesday 23 May) welcomed the announcement by Music Network of funding awards totalling €224,000 under the Music Capital Scheme 2017/18 both to performing groups and individual talented musicians.
This initiative, which is in existence since 2008, is managed by Music Network and funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
The Music Capital Scheme is designed to provide support for the purchase of musical instruments, and to respond to a broad range of capital needs within the music sector in Ireland. A particular area of difficulty for musicians and ensembles is purchasing musical instruments. The cost of instrument purchase, maintenance and repair can be significant barriers to the development of many organisations and this scheme aims to address this.
The capital scheme is made of two distinct awards that provide funding towards the purchase of musical instruments both to performing groups and individual musicians at a professional performing standard.
Under Award 1, €160,000 for the purchase of musical instruments was awarded to not-for-profit and community music groups across a wide range of musical genres including Marching/Concert/Pipe Bands, Multi-genre, Irish Traditional, Popular Contemporary, Choral and Samba.
Under Award 2, €64,000 was awarded to 17 highly skilled musicians performing at professional level to assist with the purchase of instruments/equipment. Musical genres covered in these allocations were as diverse as Irish Traditional, Classical, Jazz/Improvised, Punk/Electro-acoustic and Early/Baroque.
Commenting on these allocations, Minister Madigan said:
The Music Capital Scheme is a fantastic initiative which has benefitted thousands of people since the scheme was set up in 2008. The Music Capital Scheme is a key resource for musical groups and talented musicians. I am very pleased that my Department is once again in a position to support the scheme and I wish all of the musicians involved every success with their future musical endeavours. Over the last 10 years it has helped musicians who, for lack of a decent instrument, may have otherwise struggled to achieve their full potential. Learning to play a musical instrument has many benefits for our young people and my Department's collaboration with Music Network helps to make that a bit easier.