The AIC is the representative body of composers in Ireland (including Northern Ireland). AIC represents the interests of composers in all areas of copyright, and seeks to enhance the professional status of its members through promotional activities.
It is the Irish section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and is the Irish member of the European Composers' Forum (ECF). AIC's activities therefore work on three levels: local, national and international. We seek to broaden the awareness of new music by Irish composers. This is achieved through partnership with local authority arts officers, local venues and organisers, national media, the Contemporary Music Centre (CMC), and the other national sections of the ISCM.
Our copyright role is enacted in partnership with IMRO, MCPS Ireland and CMC.
Core Policies
Our role as a representative body involves providing information on copyright and related rights; support and lobbying in all areas that affect composers' material good (such as fees, royalties, legal matters etc); and lobbying for better awareness of new Irish music where it concerns the policy formation of third parties.
We undertake to support members where disputes arise in matters relating to payments for their services as composers. We receive support in these matters from IMRO, CMC, The Arts Council, Culture Ireland (www.cultureireland.gov.ie) and others.
Activities
There are three main areas of AIC's activity:
We inform composers of opportunities and forthcoming AIC concerts through our website, newsletter and with e-shots. We also provide support and information concerning fees, royalties and commission rates. We represent Irish composers to many kinds of bodies including ISCM, ECF, the European Commission, the Arts Council, RTE, IMRO and others. We lobby on matters of public interest that affect composers: examples include the National Library Archive, the IAPA proposal, Artists' rights and others. We promote composers' work nationally and internationally by organising concerts, recording their works, and assisting the broadcast of work. We have recently held concerts in Portugal, Flanders, London and South Africa and hosted concerts on those countries, in our International Concert Exchange Programme. Currently we are involved in exchanges with Finland and Germany. We also organise composer portrait concerts and facilitate public talks from composers.
About the Association of Irish Composers
The AIC is a democratic organisation that seeks to support, represent and promote all kinds of contemporary art music without discrimination on grounds of age, gender or ethnicity. The only conditions on membership are being Irish either by birth or residency, and being a composer who has been accepted as such by existing members. There is a transparent and non-arduous procedure for joining AIC, visible elsewhere on this web site.
The Members can participate in policy formation and selection of the Committee by attending the Annual General Meeting. They are informed of the AGM venue, date and time two weeks in advance.
The current committee of the AIC consists of:
Michael Holohon (Chair)
Peter Moran (Secretary)
John McLachlan (Treasurer)
Martin O'Leary
Karen Power
History
The AIC originated in the Association of Young Irish Composers in 1972, when it was initially associated with the then very active Music Association of Ireland. AYIC promoted concerts of its members in the 1970s. It later re-constituted itself as the AIC, launching as a company with a Memorandum and Articles of Association, registering its name at the Companies Office and so forth, and moving to an office in Liberty Hall, in 1981, where it existed as the Irish Composers’ Centre alongside The Playwright and Screenwriters’ Guild. A few years later the Contemporary Music Centre was set up, and the Irish Composers’ Centre lost its raison d’etre. AIC was left aside as a separate and weakened entity. By the late 1980s it had recovered some strength, and in 1990 held the Accents Festival, at the Gallagher Gallery in Ely Place. This was a large-scale festival involving the RTE orchestras and some international elements, which took place again in 1991, but serious financial difficulties ensued, and AIC went into another dark period. By 1997, in the hands of Executive Director Maura Eaton, it had returned to good standing with both IMRO and the Arts Council, and a period of reasonable support began in 1998, lasting until the current financial depression: in 2010 it lost its annual funding from the Arts Council. It continues to enjoy strong support from IMRO, however, and currently seeks to carry on its aims as set forth above.
In the period 1994-2009 it brought Irish composition to 15 editions of the ISCM festival, throughout the world (including Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia). Separately, in its International Concert Exchange Programme it has directly brought contemporary Irish music to Flanders, Finland, Britain, Portugal, Romania, Moldova, Switzerland, France and South Africa, and hosted music from Germany, Flanders, Portugal, Britain, Denmark, Romania and Switzerland. It also hosted the Autumn Series at the Hugh Lane Gallery and featured the music of many of its members alongside international names of note. It has invited high quality performers to Ireland on many occasions, working with Rolf Hind, Ian Pace, the Fidelio Trio, David Adams, Miso Music Ensemble, the Crash Ensemble, Antipodes, the Hibernia trio and many others from around the world.
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