General Information: Kerry School of Music head office in High St, Tralee is open six days a week- Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 9am-1pm. We can also can be contacted at  066 7125690, by email at kerrymusicschool@eircom.ie , on Facebook or by visiting our website at www.kerryschoolofmusic.com  where regular updates and news on forthcoming events are provided. Please also check out KSM Dance Academy and Kerry ChamberChoir on Facebook.

Congratulations to Kerry School of Music Senior Orchestra who played ‘out of their socks’ before a packed St. Mary’s Church of Ireland, Killarney on Wednesday last in a joint concert with an American High School String Orchestra. Such was the interest in the concert that the St. Mary’s staff had to close and secure the front door of the church and turn away up to a hundred patrons.

Easter Music Camp:

The Second Annual Easter Music Camp itook place duringthe second week of Easte with eighty five children taking part. The camp ran daily from Tuesday to Saturday, April 22nd to 26th. Through a range of activities centred on a familiar fairy tale, children from 4-12 were introduced to the entire family of instruments. They bowed, plucked, struck and banged their way through all instrument groups forming a ‘crash orchestra’ which accompanied the dramatisation of the tale of the Princess and the Frog. Song and dance and creative movement are also included.

Easter Concert- Music for Passiontide

St Mary’s Cathedral Choir and the Kerry Chamber Choir and Orchestra joined forces once again for a very special Easter concert in a packed St. Mary’s Church of Ireland, Killarney on Saturday last, April 26th when they are joined by Soloists Grainne O’ Carrol, Soprano and Amanda Neri, Contralto in a performance of three of the most beautiful sacred choral works associated with Easter – Vivaldi Gloria, Pergolesi Stabat Mater and Vivaldi Stabat Mater.

This is the second joint venture for the two choirs who first collaborated last November in a choral evening to raise funds for Palliative Care.

The Chamber Choir will now turn its attention to a recording project. In late June they will record fourteen original sacred choral pieces by director Aidan O’ Carroll ranging from functional psalm settings to one complete mass setting and settings of the Ave Maria, Our Father and the Magnificat. The recording will be launched on the KSM label at a concert in September.

Best wishes to former KSM Musician of the Year and Killarney Rotary Club Young Musician of the Year, Doireann O’ Carroll who’s off to Great Britain this weekend to compete in the Rotary of Great Britain and Ireland Music Competition. She will be accompanied by Tralee Soprano Charlotte O’ Halloran who came third in this year’s competition.

May concerts:

Glorach, Abbeyfeale, Friday, May 9th, 8pm: Students from Castleisland, Abbeyfeale, Duagh and Brosna go through their paces and are joined by the KSM Senior Orchestra and Wind Band.

Flischmann Sturio, Kerry School of Music, Saturday, May 9tt, 7.30pm: International prize-winning pianist and KSM teacher Mantautas Katinas in concert on the Kerry County Steinway piano.

St. John’s Church of Ireland, Ashe St, Tralee, 8pm: Kerry School of Music Senior Orchestra goes Pop. An evening of pop classics ranging from the Beatles to Abba, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson.

Dingle (venue to be announced): Dingle Centre music and ballet students perform with guests the KSM Senior Orchestra and Wind Ensemble.

Fleischmann Studio, Saturday, May 24th, 7.30pm: Multi-award winning Soprano Aisling O’ Carroll and guests in An Evening of Song.

Enrollment and exam month

May is enrollment and examination month at the School of Music. Individual students and families are asked to bring us up to date with their requirements for September by re-registering. Year-end examinations also commence with two weeks of Royal Irish Academy, Royal Academy of Dance and Leinster School of Speech and Drama examinations. The School’s four Guitar teachers have decided to organise the London College of Music/Registry of Guitar Teachers exams in October due to difficulties in acquiring texts.

Monster Bar-B-Q

Saturday, May 31st is the date set for the KSM Monster Bar-B-Q which is aiming to raise the matching funds to enable the School to draw down a €10,000 grant from the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht that will enable a complete replacement of the windows in the Fleischmann Studio wing of the School. Tickets go on sale on Monday, April 29th. A great day is promised with live music acts, children’s games, spot prizes and much more fun promised.

27th Annual Summer School

The Summer School takes place over two weeks in July and, likethe Easter Camp, introduces young people to the entire range of musical instruments through the medium of sing, dance, story-telling. visual art and drama. The Kerry School of Music Summer School has the distinction of being the longest established summer school in the county and has introduced thousands of children to the entire family of instruments.

Tralee musician, Daithí Kearney, is embarking on a tour of America on Saturday with members of the DkIT Ceol Oirghialla Traditional Music Ensemble.

The Dundalk-based musician (who performed for President Barack Obama in The White House in 2009), along with his colleague, Dr Adèle Commins, will lead the group will depart for New York and Kansas on Saturday, April 26.

Building on the links between DkIT and both Molloy College and Baker University, the busy tour schedule will include performances, lectures and community outreach projects in a variety of schools.

The trip will promote Ireland as a place to pursue opportunities for study and research at third and fourth level and highlight the rich cultural links that exist in music between Ireland and America.
While in New York, the Ensemble will present a Lecture Recital at Molloy College, Long Island, and at the American Irish Historical Society on Fifth Avenue.
Flying to Kansas, the group will have the opportunity to observe and learn from students and professors in the Department of Music and Theatre at Baker University.
Well known to audiences in Tralee from his involvement for many years with Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, Daithi was involved over Easter in the celebration of Easter services in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Tralee.

Now based in Dundalk, he continues to perform regularly and has featured regularly on television including as a presenter of the popular television series Geantraí.

Previous trips to America have included performances in Forde’s Theatre, Washington D.C. with Siamsa Tíre, participation in the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with the New Ross and District Pipe Band, and a performance for President Obama in the White House in 2009.
Dr Daithí Kearney is an ethnomusicologist, geographer and performer, lecturing in Music at DkIT.

An All-Ireland Champion musician, he has toured regularly as a musician, singer and dancer with a number of groups and performed for President Obama in The White House in 2009.

In 2012 he released an album with Cork accordion player John Cronin entitled Midleton Rare, which is related to a wider research project on the music and musicians of the Sliabh Luachra region.

ANY music lovers travelling to Killarney this Saturday could do no better than visiting St Mary’s Church of Ireland for an evening of to remember.

St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir, Kerry Chamber Choir and Kerry Chamber Orchestra, directed by Aidan O’Carroll and with soloists Grainne O’Carroll (Soprano) and Amanda Neri (Contralto) will perform a choral and musical celebration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord at the church in Kenmare Place at 8pm.

The concert is open to the public and admission is free. A retiring collection will take place.

The works chosen for the concert are Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, Stabat Mater by Vivaldi and Gloria in Excelsis Deo also by Vivaldi. These are three of the best known works inspired by the story of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. The Pergolesi Stabat Mater and the Vivaldi Stabat Mater are both being performed in Kerry for the first time.