Chairperson’s Foreword

INFORMATION

Board

Chief Executive Officer

Secretary

Head Office

Bankers

Solicitors

Maura McGrath (Chairperson) James Cavanagh Rebecca Gageby Hilary Hough Michelle O’Sullivan John Reynolds Don Thornhill

Robert Read

John Nolan (to 24th August 2021) Margaret Larkin (1st March 2022)

Earlsfort Terrace Dublin 2

Bank of Ireland, 39, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2.

Philip Lee Solicitors, 7/8, Wilton Terrace, Dublin 2.

Sounding the Feminists winners Wyvern Lingo Photocall with NCH Chair Maura McGrath and Minister Catherine Martin.

Erica Cody,Celaviedmai and Alicia Raye at a photocall for the Extraterrestrial concert.

Celine Byrne; one of the Spring/Summer Variations artists.

CHAIRPERSON’S FOREWORD

As Chairperson of the NCH, I wish to present my foreword for the Annual Report 2021.

2021 was a year of great challenge for the NCH due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. As Chairperson of the NCH, I believe that the NCH and all our National Cultural Institutions have a fundamental role to nurture and contribute to societal wellbeing and to our national recovery. The contribution of Artists and Music has been truly remarkable during this most difficult time.

The NCH was closed from the start of the year until the landmark outdoor test event with James Vincent McMorrow in the Iveagh Gardens on 8th June. The Hall itself re-opened for in-person events in September with 79 in-person events staged for the remainder of the end of the year, with an average of 62% occupancy. Highlights included very well attended concerts with the music of Zimmer vs Williams, the Good Glow with Georgie Crawford, John Grant, Ye Vagabonds, Mick Flannery and Susan O’Neill. The Treaty by Colin Murphy was also a tremendous success. The Board and I thank the CEO, Senior Management Team and Staff for their commitment and resilience which has contributed to the NCH maintaining our national presence while staying connected through music with our audiences.

The Board and I thank our newly appointed CEO Robert Read, Senior Management Team and Staff for their commitment and resilience which has contributed to the NCH maintaining our national presence while staying connected through music with our audiences.

Throughout the period of Covid-19, the importance of digital as a medium to not only communicate what we are doing, but most importantly to facilitate concerts and educational events for audiences – remote and in-venue – ensured a regular schedule of concerts and activity from NCH. We saw significant positive engagement with existing audiences, across all age groups, and attracted many new customers to the NCH for the first time. Positively, overseas visitors accounted for almost 23% of audiences overall with the highest of those from the UK, the USA, Germany and Ukraine. NCH livestreamed 90 concerts and events including masterclasses, workshops and talks across free and paid platforms during 2021. James Vincent McMorrow’s performance in the Iveagh Gardens in June, the first concert of its kind in Ireland in 18 months, , attracted almost 17,000 total unique viewers.

During 2021, our Learning & Participation programme continued online, with a return to some in-person activity towards the end of the year. Successfully reaching new and existing audiences, we focussed our activity on those most affected by the pandemic. This included online dementia-friendly concerts, music for mental wellbeing, Music in Children’s Hospitals, and visits to the National Rehabilitation Hospital. We supported young people at home and in schools with the online version of our Quavers to Quadratics programme, exploring science through music and sound. We presented a live stream of the beautiful Wunderground production with Ceol Connected, and we presented a range of workshops for the very young as part of Cruinniú na nÓg.