Mike Nielsen

Introduced me to vasts amounts of music: Leo Brouwer, Allan Holdsworth, to mention but a few.

He was a laid back guy, and, at the age of fourteen, that actually mattered alot to me.

It was classical guitar he got me interested in and I really am grateful for that. At the time 

I was playing a lot of electric guitar, but found it quite confusing, for many reasons.

 

John Feeley

Had him for less than a year. Very good Bach player. I 

really believe Bach suits him.

Interestingly, you can watch him online playing

Joyces guitar (james)

 

This was a very confusing time for me musically

because I couldn't understand why I could not

enjoy the guitar properly, or why I seemed to be

playing far more piano than guitar.

 

Barbara Dagg

Introduced me to an interesting method of musical dictation: when you 

hear, for example, a crotchet followed by a quaver, you write

a dash followed by a smaller dash.

Small world: my mum went to the proms

with her and me when I was 2

(however I often confuse information like this!)

 

Mary Lennon

 great person and a brilliant teacher...played

and practiced a vast amount for her, and really, really

worked hard to impress.

 

Ita Beausang

Unsung genius of pedagogy and musicality.

When I was incredibly depressed at the age of 18

and 19, repeating leaving certs, hating myself, 

thinking I was not musical, blah blah blah...

well, go figure: of all the institutions in ireland, 

who is the one person who fought to get me into 

third level education, apart from my mum? Ita.

She taught me piano for two years in D.I.T.

Very kind person, and helped me develop 

the ability to get a good tone out of the piano

 

Bob Geldof

 

I did actually eventually meet him, after he played a gig in Munich.

As I expected: honest, and to the point.

My generation could not, and cannot, escape his brilliance.

Had a huge impact on me, most Irish people, and indeed many people

all over the world.

I am in particular referring to the mid 80's when he decided to

actually do something about famine hitting Ethiopia.

Big memory imprints for me.

 

Mirette Dowling

I dont know why, but I was a very shy child and 

had very little self conviction. This was very difficult for 

my third piano teacher, at the age of...maybe 9 or 10?

I found the concept of sight reading baffling but what she 

did not understand was why a person might find it baffling

 

David Adams

Nice guy. Let me develop my own ideas when I was 

doing my thesis. He gave me the space I needed 

and I really respect him for this. Great organist.

 

Sara Lovell

Brilliant teacher. Taught me cello for 

a period of time when I was living in England.

Wrote a book, "Cellotude" and flies spaceships, 

and likes John Wyndham. 

She also recorded the entire Bach cello 

suites: no mean feat. 

 

Anne Leahy

Tour de force on Bach. Very sadly she

passed away a few years ago.

She taught us history of 

music in DIT.

I will always associate her with Bach's 

B minor mass.

 

http://www.dit.ie/conservatory/newsarchive/archive2010/launchofanneleahylibrarycollection/

 

I was especially pleased to see the above link. Thank you Anne.

 

Deborah Kelleher

 

Caring lecturer, now head of the RIAM

 

Had her for melodic dictation and other stuff.

Its great to see her doing so well. 

Brilliant piano player.

 

 

Michael Dervan

Writes for the Irish times, and gets a lot 

of slack in general for being an astute musical 

critic who sometimes goes overboard. However, he 

was an excellent lecturer in DIT where I had him

for a year. He bothered to get the class to confront

itself, and for that I am grateful. I don't think he

was very interested in the fact that Richard David James

is a good Irish composer (in my opinion), but lets not 

have that conversation now.

His book, http://newisland.ie/product/the-invisible-art-century-music-ireland-1916-2016/

 

is excellent ( he edited it)

 

Bernie Sherlock

Very talented choral conductor I was blessed to have 

for five years in the brilliant DIT chamber choir. Not sure how

she put up with me

 

Hazel Crawford

Would you like a pint of ouija boards?

Come on Hazel, get it together. 

I will quote Phillip Anselmo on this one:

"because of heaven hell, a #ucking wive's tale"

 

 

Padhraic O Cuinneagain

 

Really nice guy. One thing

I really enjoyed about his lectures

was his ability to back things he was 

debating on the piano. Struck me as an

excellent pianist.

 

Kevin Hanafin

 

Had him for a certain lecture in DIT,

something to do with attitude in music.

 

Two things: 1. there were some total non-workers

in the class. I think in order to inspire them, or at least

kick them out of bed, Kevin was telling us we should really

be practicing ten hours a day.

 

I completely disagree with this: practice can help,

but, now into my 39th year, I can vehemently 

point out that preaching ten hours a day is

dangerous nonsense.

 

However, Kevin did lend me a book, 

which I later bought, called "Effortless Mastery",

by Kenny Werner. And this book encourages people

to just initially "practice" 5 mins a day, and take if from there.

 

So Kevin was a really nice guy, a great musician etc, and 

ultimately ended up sharing some valuable ethics with me: 

I just disagree on fore mentioned point.

 

Ethel Clancy

 

Looking back now, I wouldnt recommend teaching me on my worst enemy.

Poor Ethel. 

Introduced me to Penderecki, and I really am grateful for that.

Things we studied were John Buckley's remarkable  sonata for unaccompanied violin.

Its an absolute disgrace that this piece of music is not heard often enough.

Constantine: get on to her.

So we also did Copeland's mexican tortilla concerto, and Beethovens something or

other. 

 

One of the problems is when you are 17, or at least when I was 17...everything was

so magnified and intense and peculiar. It was tricky to just enjoy music for what it

is. So yes, I was in a school band, and yes, we performed a gig at the end of the year

or sometime, etc etc etc..but it all felt really out of control to me, and perhaps Ethel too.

 

For example, in the school band we were in, we performed "rape me" by nirvana, and

"killing in the name of" by rage against the maschine. These are two brilliant

pieces of music, but it all just felt out of control, badly performed, and wrong to me.

Our singer had to change the word's of "rape me" to "eat me", and "killing in the name of"

just felt odd in front of a domestic, school audience. 

My guitar was out of tune, and I remember just feeling angry that the music

could have been so much better if we had practiced more.

 

Im going off the point now: back to Ethel. Great person, great teacher.

 

Connie Gardner

 

At least I think that was her name. Piano teacher for me for a short

period of time. I remember TAFFA TAY FEE

for counting crotchets and quavers

 

David Mooney

 

Very kind man, had him for counterpoint and related stuff.

Really enjoyed his lectures, and he respected me also, which 

I found very important. Really enjoyed talking with him about 

music in general: 

 

Blanaid Murphy

 

Had her for doing a Bach cantata. It was a little odd because

this was outside of the 4th year DIT prospectus: I had been 

rung up and asked to do it.

It was a vast amount of work on top of the other several million

hours I was putting into music at the time so I think

my memory of her is paled by that fact. I was basically

being over worked.

My memory of her is of a very passionate and interesting 

conductor, very much in her element with the music we were

doing. Great person: would like to know more about

what motivates her

 

Bruce Mathiske

 

I never got lessons or anything from this guy.

He's a very respected guitarist to a certain point but

its unlikely, for various stereotype, predictable reasons

to do with nature of plastic marketing society, 

, he will get the respect

Tommy Emmanuel or any of those other acoustic guitarists 

get etc.

However: this guy has had a profound musical influence

on me, and has pretty much shaped a large part of my 

musical psychology. Here is why:

 when I was 14 I was listening to the radio, and 

the presenter mentioned a great guitarist would be on 

late that evening, or the following day or something.

 

So I tuned in: and what I heard did that rare thing: took

me out of myself.

 

First of all, it was great acoustic guitar playing, fun stuff, 

in several parts, (he was doing bass rhythm and lead at 

the same time)....so, sure, that was interesting. But then

something very peculiar happened: the sound turned into 

a harp. I though "thats impossible". 

 

But its perfectly possible, like all things in music. Fortunatley 

I was recording it at the time, so I ended up figuring out 

what he did on the tape.

 

It was a mixture of certain types of harmonics on the guitar.

 

Fundamentally, there is no big deal about this, its just a 

technique: the sound produced has been around 

for thousands of years, and so have, most likely,

the techniques used to get those sounds.

 

But it was only a few months ago as I write that I am 

realising that the harp is, of course, the Irish emblem.

 

Right?

 

And the Irish have gone through a lot of suppression, right?

 

And if you suddenly hear a harp, where before there was

something else or no harp, your gonna feel good right?

 

So I believe the magic I heard was the true voice of Ireland,

rising from the murky depths of suppression, played by

a kangaroo.

 

But if you believe that, well...perhaps its a very Irish 

thing to believe this nonsense. Being from Neptune 

myself, I should not know.

 

 

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

 

I consider every book I have ever read to be a teacher in 

its own right, and its author also.

No exception are these two masters of fantasy: I read "Dragons of Autumn Twilight"

when I was maybe ten or eleven...? 

And a whole load of their other books. 

Really enjoyed them, especially the philisophical 

side about neutrality, and the humour with regards

to certain characters e.t.c.

 

Joe Satriani

 

As above:  never met him but have listened to vast amounts

of music by him and I am listening right now as I type.

Saw him live and had fun.

I remember seeing him swap his hands round on the guitar when

I saw him playing live,

realising how to play a certain piece of his music because of this, 

and then learning it. "mystical potato" or something.

 

and you know the Irish have a thing for potatoes (;

 

Sven Lager

 

Very interesting guy, who very kindly let me 

use a place called "Sharehouse", in Kreuzberg, 

to develop many musical ideas I was having. 

He was one of the first people to introduce me 

to the idea of helping refugees, and now, 

three or four years later, I am doing that 

all the time. 

Thank you Sven. I owe you far more than

a guiness (:

He believed in my music, and that

is something very valuable to me indeed

 

Dartington College of Arts

 

When I lived in England, I was playing vast amounts

of piano. After my minimum wage job I would go to 

Dartington and just play the pianos until 2.a.m.

I wasnt enrolled on any course or anything, but I soon

realised the caretaker or whoever locked up couldnt care

less if I was there or not. The rooms were mostly empty anyway.

Someone would lock up in the evenings, and I would sometimes 

stay very late and then simply climb out the window.

It was a blessing just to be allowed in to play the pianos.

I really loved playing there.

 

I wonder whats happening there now? The college

was relocated to Falmouth