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The mural at CBS Primary School painted in memory of Eric Roche.
A NEW mural celebrating a local musician has been painted at the primary school he attended growing up in Tralee.
Eric Roche was a renowned guitarist who released a number of records in the late 90s and early noughties, garnering critical acclaim.
He passed away in 2005 at the age of 37 from cancer, leaving a wife and two children. Since his death, his talent has been celebrated posthumously by a range of musicians. His family and friends had been discussing a way to permanently keep his memory alive in his home town of Tralee.
A mural in his honour was commissioned and Tralee CBS Primary was approached as a suitable site. The board of management was delighted to honour one of their past pupils in such a way.
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Eric began his musical career in Tralee CBS with the dedicated teacher Jim O’Connor who inspired hundred of children across the country to play music in multiple instruments.
The mural, painted by talented artist Pawel Wroblewski, is located at the stage door entrance where many young students will continue to perform.
The organisers of the mural thanked Mr. Denis Coleman, Principal of Tralee CBS and his staff for allowing them to showcase Eric.
Eric’s Family was involved in the process from start to finish and was on hand to unveil the work of art on Friday, with childhood friend and one of the main drivers of the project, Riobard Brosnan.
Riobard has also made a short documentary celebrating Eric’s life and hopefully this will be screened in Tralee in September coinciding with Eric’s anniversary.
Eric Roche enlisted for classical guitar at the London Musician’s Institute in 1992. After his degree he became head of its guitar department in 1996 and released his first CD The Perc U Lator three years later.
In 2000 he became head of guitar at Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, where his pupils included well known musician Newton Faulkner.
In 2001 his second CD Spin was released. In 2004 Roche issued his third album With These Hands and released his book The Acoustic Guitar Bible, a guide to acoustic guitar playing with a foreword by Tommy Emmanuel.
Roche was a regular columnist for the magazines Guitar Techniques and Acoustic Guitar and did international master classes and workshop.
For Eric, a tribute CD, was released shortly after his death in 2005, containing 20 tracks from different artists.
In 2006, the Guitar School of the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford was renamed to “ACM Eric Roche Guitar School”.
Guthrie Govan dedicated a song called “Eric” in his 2006 album Erotic Cakes to him. Newton Faulkner’s song ‘So Much’ was written as a token of respect for the influence Roche had had in his life. There are many of his performances available to view on YouTube.
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