We are delighted to announce that the members of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) have elected Dr. Dennis Jennings to the RIAM Board of Governors. www.riam.ie. The Board, chaired by Dr. Brian Aylward, has overall responsibility for the government of the management of the Academy, and for the administration of the Endowments.
The RIAM is a venerable institution, established in 1848, and reconstituted in 1889 under the Educational Endowments Act of 1885. Based at Westland Row, Dublin, the RIAM is the premier music conservatory in Ireland.
The heart of the Academy is a creative and systematic musical training for individuals of all ages. All classical musical disciplines are catered for in five separate faculties: Keyboard; String; Woodwind, Brass and Percussion; Vocal and Musicianship. The Academy has a proven track record of fostering musical talent and there are 150 full time students taking a range of postgraduate, degree and diploma level programmes. In addition, a very important part of the Academy’s activities is teaching a range of courses on musical performance to 1,000 part time students at the Academy in Dublin.
Directed by Professor Deborah Kelleher, the academic teaching staff members include a host of well-known names: John O’Conor (piano), Hugh Tinney (piano), David Adams (organ, harpsicord), Fionnuala Hunt (violin), Aisling Drury-Byrne (cello), William Dowdall (flute), Matthew Manning (oboe), John Finucane (clarinet), James Cavanagh (trumpet), Ann Murray (International Visiting Artist for Voice), Mary Brennan (singing), Veronica Dunne (singing), Virginia Kerr (singing), Kathleen Tynan (opera), Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (International Visiting Artist for Composition) and Jörg Widmann (International Visiting Artist for Clarinet and Composition).
RIAM produces graduates that have gone on to significant international careers, or have contributed to our vibrant cultural community through work in other aspects of the music profession. On the international stage former Academy students are currently members of such leading orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonia Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as opera houses from the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden to La Scala, Milan.
RAIM students have won prizes at some of the world’s most prestigious competitions including the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, the China International Vocal Competition, the Leeds International Piano Competition and the Dublin International Piano Competition. Recent major prize-winners include: Kate Hearne (1st Prize Montréal International Recorder Competition 2005), Celine Byrne (1st Prize Maria Callas Grand Prix 2007), Breffni O’Byrne (1st Prize Gunter Bialas Composition Competition 2009), and Soo Jung Ann (1st Prize Beethoven International Piano Competition 2013).
The Academy’s charter includes bringing the teaching of musical performance to part time students and amateurs across the island of Ireland, North and South. The Academy manages the RIAM Teaching Network supporting over 7,000 music teachers, who in turn teach many thousands of part-time musicians around Ireland. Every year, over 42,000 students take the RIAM Local Centre examinations. The Academy has recently launched Ireland’s first Virtual Learning Environment for Vocal and Instrumental teachers.