IMRO Elects New Chairman
The Board of The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) is pleased to announce that the renowned composer and saxophonist Keith Donald has been appointed to the position of Chairman of IMRO. His term of office will run for 3 years.
Donald who was born in County Derry, Northern Ireland in 1945 is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin and has studied at University of Minnesota and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
A founding member of the critically acclaimed Irish instrumental group Moving Hearts Donald has played sax with people as diverse as Van Morrison, The Dubliners, Zoot Sims, Christy Moore, Vusi Mahlahsela, Gerry Mulligan, and Máire Breatnach. He has produced and arranged songs by Bono, Shane MacGowan, Elvis Costello and Christy Moore for Ronnie Drew’s first solo album, Dirty Rotten Shame for Sony Records. Over the years he has composed music for the BBC, Channel Four, BFI, RTE, Neil Jordan’s Angel, plays by Brian Friel, Damian Gorman and Frank McGuinness and he wrote the music for the BBCNI drama United which won a BAFTA in 1997.
“On a personal level my appointment to the Chair of IMRO is an enormous honour for me. To become the figurehead for such an important and vital organisation that represents the interests of so many music creators is a responsibility that I don’t take lightly. There are significant challenges facing the music industry and it is my firm intention to ensure that IMRO continues to grow steadily while ensuring the interests of all those whom we represent are best protected in the years ahead” states Donald.
Music Education initiatives have very much been at the forefront of Donald’s activities over the years. While working at the Arts Council he helped with the foundation of the Rock School in Senior College Ballyfermot in 1988 and was involved in the IRMA Trust’s musical instrument scheme whereby people can provide unused instruments to be refurbished and passed on to talented young people who could not otherwise afford them. He established MusicBase, a facility that advised and assisted hundreds of people about the domestic and international music business in the 1990s.
Through previous membership of the Boards of the IRMA Trust, the Temple Bar Music Centre, the IBEC Music Group, plus having served on Forte, the advisory group set up by the first Minister for Arts and Culture he has developed a comprehensive understanding of music and the arts in Ireland and overseas. He currently sits on the Board of the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society of Ireland (MCPSI).
IMRO is a national organisation administering the performing right in copyright music in Ireland on behalf of its members – songwriters, composers and music publishers – and on behalf of the members of the international overseas societies that are affiliated to it. IMRO’s function is to collect and distribute royalties arising from the public performance of copyright works. IMRO is a not-for-profit organisation.
