What's Next for Irish Music? Annual Lecture with Toner Quinn

What's Next for Irish Music?

As well as writing about Irish music for the past twenty-five years in the Journal of Music, Toner Quinn has been involved in two major national policy shifts: the Arts Council’s 2004 Towards a Policy for the Traditional Arts document and the 2014 Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland. Now, 20 and 10 years on, respectively, he reflects on the impact of these initiatives and considers what lies ahead. What does the trajectory of recent developments in the arts – from Arts Council funding to the Basic Income trial – mean for musicians? How can we further strengthen music across Ireland? And what do these developments mean for the extraordinary tradition of the Irish harp?

About Toner Quinn

Toner Quinn is a musician, writer, editor, publisher and lecturer. He began traditional Irish fiddle with the late Tom Glackin and subsequently studied music in Waterford and publishing at the University of Stirling in Scotland. In 2000, he founded the Journal of Music, the Irish music publication that won the 2010 Utne Independent Press Award for Arts Coverage.

As well as editing the Journal of Music, Quinn was Project Officer for the Special Committee on the Traditional Arts, which produced the report Towards a Policy for the Traditional Arts in 2004, and, in 2014, he was commissioned by the Arts Council to research the Irish harp, which led to the publication Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland.

This year, Quinn published What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music, a book collection of his essays described by the Irish Times as ‘a formidable collection… a richly textured all-embracing compendium … Collecting so many well-argued pieces in one place underscores the heft of Quinn’s writing.’

In 2013, Quinn released a fiddle duet album with Malachy Bourke, Live at the Steeple Sessions. He is also the editor of Desmond Fennell – his life and work, a collection of essays on the late Irish writer. Since 2008, Quinn has been a part-time lecturer in publishing at the University of Galway.

Host or Publisher Cruit Éireann, Harp Ireland