PIANO TEACHER TRAINING IN IRELAND

PIANO TEACHER TRAINING IN IRELAND

Edinburgh Suzuki piano teacher, Mary McCarthy, is now running teacher training courses in Scotland and Ireland.

Interest in the Irish course began with Suzuki violin and viola teacher Maire Ni Dhuibhir from New Inn, near Kilconnell in Co. Galway. Wishing to train as a Suzuki piano teacher to satisfy local demand, Maire and other teachers in the area have come forward to join Mary’s course. There are now a total of ten teachers from Galway City, Loughrea, Kilconnell and Roscommon training with the Suzuki Education Institute of Ireland.

Mary visits Co. Galway several times a year. In March of this year the Irish teachers flew to Edinburgh and joined their Scottish counterparts for a 3 day training course. Their trip included a visit to the Russell Collection of harpsichords, in St. Cecilia’s Hall (Edinburgh University).

Back in August 2004, some Suzuki piano pupils from the Edinburgh area combined holidays in Co. Galway to coincide with the Irish course, and in the mornings received individual lessons from the trainees and group lessons from Mary. This took place at St. Killian’s College, a secondary school in New Inn where Tom McCoughlin, Maire’s husband, is Head Teacher. While the facilities of the music department, situated in two huts at the rear of the school enabled the course to take place, a really good piano was needed.

Finally after looking around for a suitable instrument for some time, Maire took the plunge and this year a deposit was put on a Yamaha grand. The proprietor of the nearby Slateford Restaurant at Loughrea, Maura Winters, was prepared to house the piano there permanently. “Friends of Loughrea Heritage” gave 20,000 euros, backed mainly by business people in the area and a series of recitals over the winter months was set up to fund the whole project. Inaugurated by Mary this summer around fifty people attended her concert, which included works by J.S. Bach, Beethoven and Chopin as well as a contemporary Serbian piece. After wine and cheese sponsored by the restaurant, Mary continued her concert with about twenty minutes of Scottish and Irish folk music.

Never having been to Ireland before and interested to see what was happening on the course there, Mary invited me to join her at New Inn in August this year. Some teacher trainees from the Scottish course also took part and Suzuki piano pupils from Edinburgh came along again.

The moment I stepped off the Dublin-Galway train I was in another world. This was Woodlawn, a tiny halt, with a profusion of fuchsia bushes growing beside the narrow platform. The station was opened specially for a local landowner many years ago and is within easy reach of New Inn by car.

The morning sessions of the course were held at Slateford Restaurant, itself an impressive barn conversion in the heart of Co. Galway countryside. The new piano is kept in a modern extension to the building, which forms the main part of the restaurant. With its high, cathedral-like ceilings and big windows, it was nothing less than inspiring to sit and listen to piano music surrounded by a vista of woods and rolling farmland.

Each day began at 9.00am with two teachers’ lessons; most of the course members arriving by 9.30. Everyone then performed a small concert before the Suzuki families arrived for a group lesson. Next, coffee was served by the restaurant staff who at the same time took orders for lunch. I cannot think of a better venue, where, halfway through the morning and wilting a little, we were offered a choice of a fish, meat or vegetarian dish with some tempting desserts! Parents and teachers mingled and the children were able to play outside in the restaurant grounds.

Then it was back to work again; the children each had an individual lesson with a designated trainee; each trainee kept the same pupil throughout the course.

After lunch we drove to St. Killians College, where the trainees received their own lessons, teaching points on the pieces were covered and discussions on the Suzuki method took place. On the final afternoon I managed to rendezvous with one of my own pupils from Edinburgh, who just happened to be touring Ireland by car with her parents. Somehow they had managed to find us! Katie had a piano lesson with Mary, after which she was presented with an ice cream Maire had bought for her at the village shop next door to the school. Not a bad start to a holiday!

One evening some of us repaired to an inn at Ballyfa, where a band of local traditional musicians which included some of Maire’s Suzuki violinists, played Irish music.

Altogether it was an exhilarating experience and my thanks go to Mary, Maire and Marie, my hostess, as well as the teacher trainees, who made me feel most welcome. I hope to go again.

Marie Barton

Article first published in 'Ability' Journal of the British Suzuki Institute, Spring 2006