The New Music Festival has also launched a publication, Teaching The Unteachable? By Orpheus Publications WIT, about the role of composition in music education. The title is more unfortunate than ambiguous and the Unteachable is music, not students. Hazel Farrell and Marian Ingoldsby discuss composers and students.

Farrell, in a survey, found that over fifty per cent of Irish-based composers have higher degrees, so you might consider too much of an academic influence on concert music. But it might be worth considering that academic institutions recognise composers and give them a clear opportunity to support their chosen career.

Seoirse Bodley saw compositional teaching as – helping the student to develop outwards from whatever point he or she had reached. He considered that formal musical education should be separate from composition.