Opera Ireland has announced the appointment of Niall Doyle as chief executive. Mr Doyle (46), who is currently executive director of RTÉ performing groups, will take up his new post next April.
At RTÉ, Mr Doyle controlled a €15.5 million budget, with overall responsibility for the management of the national broadcaster's orchestras, choirs and string quartet. The restructuring he undertook after his appointment in 1998 brought a much-needed stability and focus to RTÉ's music division, which he managed to sustain through a period in which RTÉ as a whole was experiencing unprecedented volatility.
At Opera Ireland, he succeeds David Collopy, who leaves to pursue other projects at the end of the year.
Mr Doyle trained as a primary school teacher before taking up a career as a freelance tuba player and concert promoter. He has played in both RTÉ orchestras, was a founder member of the Prelude Brass Ensemble, and worked for a period with Australia's Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Brass Ensemble.
Between 1992 and 1998, as chief executive of the Music Network, he expanded that national music development agency from a body with one employee and a turnover of €114,000 to one with a team of 10 and, with the assistance of major sponsorship from the ESB, a turnover of over €635,000.
He has served on the board of the National Concert Hall, and was a member of the opera working group set up by the Arts Council last year, a group whose recommendations the council has yet to implement.
His time in RTÉ saw a dispute over costs lead to the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra being replaced in the pit at Wexford Festival Opera by orchestras from Belarus and Poland.
RTÉ's relationship has always remained more cordial with Opera Ireland, which still uses the services of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
