Sir, – Your music critic, Michael Dervan, has drawn attention (Arts Ideas, January 8th) to simultaneous productions this month of Benjamin Britten operas by the two Dublin third-level music performance colleges, the RIAM and DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. It is ironic that these performances should take place in the week in which the HEA’s discussion document on college mergers is published.
According to your report (Front page, January 16th) these proposals envisage the RIAM merging with TCD and the Marino Institute, while presumably the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama stays with the proposed Dublin Alliance of Institutes of Technology.
If there are two third-level institutes crying out for merger and rationalisation, it is surely the two very fine but small Dublin music performance colleges, each struggling to maintain standards on ever-reducing public financial subventions. Apart from unnecessary duplication of resources (so eloquently seen in this week’s operatic productions), a merger of these two third-level components could enable the capital city to have one consolidated music performance academy of world standard. – Yours, etc,