Kerry School Of Music

"Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies." - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

The Kerry School of Music and Performing Arts is one of this county's most priceless educational resources. With its central office in Tralee and classes also on offer in Killarney, Listowel, Castleisland, Dingle, Kenmare and Caherciveen, it really is county-wide in its reach and so is a wonderful facility for all young Kerry people who love music, singing and dance.

I paid a visit to the High Street HQ in Tralee this week. It was bustling with purposeful young people all facing the prospect of looming exams with contained excitement, good-humoured teachers smiling at me, warm and welcoming staff, patient parents with serious aspects waiting for their offspring and an extremely helpful and vigilant caretaker.

Aidan O'Carroll, the school's founder and principal, believes strongly in giving his pupils every opportunity to perform in public and, to that end, the school is presenting an End of Year Concert in Siamsa Tire on Sunday next, 20th May, with a matinee at 2.30pm and an evening performance at 8.00pm

No less than 1,600 students attend the Kerry School of Music and Performing Arts, which boasts 41 teachers. Both students and teachers alike have been taking time out from their academic and examination work to prepare collaborative performances for this important event, which will involve literally hundreds of students.

This concert is, in fact the third of a four-concert series in which the work of the School's different departments is platformed. On April 21st last the School's Orchestras, Concert Band and Ensembles gave a concert before a packed house at the Brandon Conference Centre.

On Sunday, April 29th, just under four hundred of Colette Maguire Jensen's Ballet and Modern Dance students performed at Killarney's INEC, again before a packed house. On Sunday 10th June, at 1.30pm and 6.30pm, the Tralee, Killarney, Kenmare and Listowel Stage Schools and the Ballet Students of Trisha Meenaghan-Wackrow from Tralee, Kenmare and Listowel will give the fourth of the series in Siamsa Tire, performing Disney's Jungle Book, Snow White and Jack and the Beanstalk.

The concert on May 20th however focuses on instrumental and vocal music. "It will offer a fascinating cross section of the School's work at its various centres," Aidan explains, "and a special aspect of the concert will be solo performances by over twenty students who were awarded Summa cum Lauda (equivalent to over 95%) in the School's internal student assessments prior to Easter. From these will be announced the Junior and Senior Student of the Year."

The School's past students have had phenomenal success and many now work in Theatre, Radio and Television, Opera and Orchestras all over the world. Outstanding past students include Soprano Miriam Murphy, who last year made her Covent Garden debut and won the International Wagner competition in Seattle.

Flautist Cormac Henry, originally from Farmer's Bridge outside Tralee, is now Principal Flautist with the Liverpool Philharmonic and frequently guests with the world's leading orchestras.

"There are so many Miriams and Cormacs coming through our system at present" Aidan observes, "it's incredibly exciting to see the transition from gambolling 4-year-old to mature young artist and to be kept in touch with their career successes. That's the fuel that energises us."

But Aidan points out that the School is not about making "stars". "In this X-Factor age," he says, "when the promise of instant stardom is the preferred drug of so many young people, the School preaches the gospel of hard work, single-minded determination, collaboration and, above all, personal fulfilment through self-development in music and performing arts".

Tickets for the concert are 16 euro and 14 euro and can be booked through Siamsa Tire on 066 712 3055. For further information on the Kerry School of Music and Performing Arts please ring 066 712 5690.