Madam, - It is a strange coincidence that on the day when Music Network launched its excellent feasibility study report, "A National System of Local Music Education Services", the governing body of the Dublin Institute of Technology confirmed an increase in fees of 25 per cent for all part-time music students at the Conservatory of Music and Drama.
While Music Network's report recognises the urgent need for a national quality service and states that "fees should be structured so as to enable children from low-income families to participate", the DIT is actively discriminating against part-time music students: continuing students in other areas across the DIT face only a 10 per cent rise.
For over a century Dublin Corporation, the City of Dublin VEC and the Department of Education worked together to provide the children of Dublin with high-quality instrumental and vocal music education at affordable rates. It has taken the DIT less than 10 years to dismantle that traditional service.
Student places have already been reduced by almost 50 per cent since 1993 and the new fees will make it impossible for families with more than one child to participate. Has the final death knell been sounded for the College of Music? - Yours, etc.,
ITE O'DONOVAN, TUI Representative, DIT Conservsatory of Music and Drama, Dublin 2.
Madam, - One of the touchstones of a city's cultural life is its musical life. In the case of Cork - European Capital of Culture for 2005 - this revolves principally around the School of Music.
In a largely philistine city this institution has provided many talented musicians as well as promoting a range of musical activities. Now teachers at the school have to teach in 17 different locations as they wait in hope for the promise of a new school to be fulfilled.
There is the strong possibility that this project may in fact never come to fruition. As 2005 approaches the musical life of the city goes from bad to worse.
For the second city of a relatively rich country, two visits a year from the National Symphony Orchestra and no prospect of a building for the School of Music are signs (if signs were needed) of a city bereft of the cultural activities one would take for granted in any European city of this size.
Salamanca and Bruges are the European Cities of Culture this year. Both are two stunningly attractive places with a vibrant range of cultural activities.
By contrast, Cork 2005 beckons as a shabby, second-rate city where music and the other arts are kept in their place by the neolithics, troglodytes and philistines who roam its streets. - Yours, etc.,
ANTHONY HARTNETT, Chestnut Grove, Bishopstown, Cork.