Friday, January 22nd, is the date set for a meeting in the Cork School of Music to discuss the setting up of a representative body for music in Ireland, writes Michael Dervan. Eve O'Kelly, director of the Contemporary Music Centre, will read a paper called "A National Music Council for Ireland?", there will be a discussion on future action and the possibility of setting up a steering group. The organisers say they would welcome the attendance of "individuals or organisation working in music, whether voluntary or professional, Arts Council funded or not". Curious then, that the e-mail circulation list includes no-one from the RTE music department, the Wexford Festival or Opera Ireland (the state's three largest music organisations), that the heads of these organisations have not been contacted, and that Friday 22nd is the day when the Association of British Orchestras, to which RTE is affiliated, is holding its annual conference in Belfast. Details of the forthcoming meeting can be had from Eve O'Kelly at 01-661 2105.

RTE is rather belatedly getting around to addressing the dearth of new music in the concert programmes of the NSO. A series of four, one-hour, monthly concerts, gets underway at the NCH next Tuesday at 6.30 p.m. Gerard McChrystal is the soloist in Michael Torke's Saxophone Concerto and the programme, which also includes After the Rain by Kilkenny-based Barry Guy, and The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie by James MacMillan (who's coming to Dublin for the concert), is conducted by Colman Pearce. The remaining concerts are on Tuesday, February 16th (including works by Hilda Paredes and Jorge Ritter under Charles Hazlewood), Tuesday, March 16th (featuring the Kronos Quartet's Joan Jeanrenaud in Kevin Volans's Cello Concerto under Colman Pearce), and Tuesday, April 20th (works by David Dzubay, John Adams, Steven Stucky and Joseph Schwantner under Richard Pittman). Admission is free and tickets can be had by ringing 01-208 3127.