President Higgins opens new BIMM Dublin premises

There were presidential words of inspiration and, fittingly, some very fine music this morning as BIMM Dublin officially opened their new premises at The Coombe.

With the original Francis Street HQ, opened in September 2011, having reached capacity after two years, the new premises, located close by at 115-117 The Coombe, means that the college can accommodate new students.

After a tour of both premises, President Michael D. Higgins attended a ceremony held in the 'Live Room' – citing BIMM Dublin tutor Joe Wall and his "previous relationship with The Stunning" as just one of the reasons for his presence – and also addressed the gathering of students, tutors and the media.

"I am so pleased that I have to use the phrase 'I officially open this building', which I do!" the President said. "It's very interesting, because from time to time over the lastt seven years, I've been looking at the creative industries. It's something in my other life that I looked at very seriously. It's probably… the area in the global economy that never went into recession. Before the recession at all, it was about 10 points clear of any other sector.
"People use this phrase 'creativity'. It's not something that you can take from above and impose downwards. It's something that in fact is built up. "

Praising BIMM Dublin's role in the Ireland's creativity and indigenous music industry, he said: "I think as well one of the advantages of taking the courses that are being offered here is that they're good for the long-term, in acquiring sustainable skills that will give you flexibility as you move from one section to the other.
"There's nothing as migratory as the music industry, it never knew boundaries. It's also something that, of its nature, means being able to reinvent yourself. Not just yourself or your own performance, but to be able to put that performance into the heart of other performances. Being able to, as it were, share, in the new excellence that will emerge."

During his 10 minute long address, the President referenced Leonard Cohen, Dylan, and the career of David Bowie, briefly reflected on his decade writing a column for Hot Press ("I would occasionally meet the people down in the office. There was a great amount of energy. There was chaos too!") and stressed that the music industry was "real", unlike the "economy where people sit and start playing monopoly with other people's money."

He praised the BIMM Dublin students who had played for him, calling them people "getting it very, very right."

Maria Somerville had earlier opened with some gentle electric guitar finger-picking and her plaintive, celtic vocals, before a beautiful slow build saw her able backing band augmenting the sound.
Up next were Rudy Trixx, a band formed at BIMM, who turned in a confident, buoyant performance with a tune that slightly recalled alt-J's 'Breezeblocks' – a very good thing. Brendan McGlynn and Color//Sound closed with 'Goodbye First Love', notable for its soaring melody and strong vocal showing.

Principal of BIMM Dublin Dara Kilkenny spoke about how "the past four years have been an amazing journey, from the original idea to open a BIMM college in Ireland, and what better place to do so than here in Dublin, with its vibrant and exciting creative community and live music scene? Since we opened in 2011, we've seen an enormous growth and demand for our courses, which exceeded all expectation and made this expansion necessary after just two years of teaching."

BIMM Dublin first opened in September 2011 and its alumni include Britain’s Got Talent finalist, Ryan O'Shaughnessy, whose debut album subsequently charted at number 1 in Ireland and reached the top 10 in the UK. BIMM Dublin is part of the BIMM Group, with further colleges in Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, and Tech Music School in London. 

For prospective students, applications for the BA (Hons) in Commercial Modern Music must be made to the CAO before 5.15pm on Saturday February 1 using the course code DT506. For further information, go to [link]www.bimm.ie[/link].