RTÉ HAS supported a string quartet in Cork since 1959 but has only renewed the Vanbrugh String Quartet’s contract to carry it through 2010 and has commissioned a report on “future options for RTÉ in chamber music provision”.
The Vanbrughs, appointed to the RTÉ residency in 1986, took first prize at the Portsmouth International String Quartet Competition in 1988, and have been the anchor quartet at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival since the festival’s foundation in 1996.
The report is being prepared by Philip Hammond, a former director of arts development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He is framing his report in the context of RTÉ’s “supports for chamber music in Ireland and the coincidence of the economic downturn and the resulting cutbacks within RTÉ”. The report is due to be completed early in January.
The members of the quartet are precluded from talking to the media about the matter, but sources close to them say they are very concerned about the report’s impact on their longer-term relationship with RTÉ. No spokesperson from RTÉ was available to comment on the issue last night.
