New music theatre college campus in Wexford
THE Irish College of Music Theatre based in Dublin, which is run by the Gorey soprano Deirdre Masterson, is opening a Wexford campus in the National Opera House from this September, offering a performing arts programme for children and adults with a view to establishing diploma and degree courses locally in the longer term.
‘I am absolutely thrilled and very excited about the prospect of bringing this national project to home territory and the icing on the cake is to have it in the Opera House,’ said Deirdre, a member of the Irish Sopranos who founded the college to provide training in Ireland for musical theatre students who would otherwise have to travel to London or New York.
The Irish College of Music Theatre was established in 2011 and formed a business partnership with the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in 2013 to provide the first diploma courses in Music Theatre in Ireland, graduating last year to a new relationship with American College Dublin to develop the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts modules at ACD where Deirdre is head of the performing arts programme.
Deirdre who studied at the Wexford School of Music under the direction of the late Alan Cutts and made her national TV and radio debut at 14 singing ‘Somehwere Over the Rainbow’ on the Late Late Toy Show, said she feels strongly that Irish students should have the option of studying at home with expert tutors at affordable fees.
When she was 17, she won a scholarship to study opera, drama and music with Dr. Veronica Dunne and became the youngest singer ever to win the Gervase Elwesaward at 18, also winning the overall vocal award at Dublin Feis Ceoil. She won a scholarship to study under the world-renowned Wagnarian soprano Astrid Varnay in Munich before completing diplomas in voice and drama in Dublin and gaining a three-year contract with Opera Ireland which she fulfilled while leading with the vocal technician David Harper in London.
A three-times winner of the ESB and TSB awards, she studied privately for a year in Cardiff with vocal coach Gerald Wragg and later at the Welsh Conservatory of Music, followed by courses in Manchester, the Goethe Institute, Austria, Germany and Scotland.
She was hired by the German com- pany Landgraf to play the lead role in the first Irish dance musical ‘ To dance on the moon’ and toured the world over three years. She used this experience to creat the Irish Sopranos with KayLynch and Wendy Dwyer.
The move to Wexford will see the launch of a Junior School for children aged six to 18 years offering classes in singing, acting and dancing, a performing arts programme for transition year students and an adult evening course, with the possibility of diploma courses being offered at a later stage, as the college develops and depending on demand.
An introductory workshop and audition for students will be held in the Opera House on July 29 and everyone interested is invited to go along to meet IMT tutors including Deirdre Masterson, Mary MacDonagh, Aileen Donohoe, Noel Lennon and Peter McCamley. There is an admission fee of €30. People can apply online at www. theirishcollegeofmusictheatre.com.