Music on her mind
Finishing her Leaving Cert exams recently gave Rachel Rynne-Lyons from Brannockstown a chance to draw her breath and look forward to a trip to Italy at the end of next month.
The trip has been made possible by a €6,000 grant from the Arts Council Young Ensembles Scheme.
Rachel, with Ella Adler, Laura Dungan and Seraphim Dempsey are the Rebelsa Quartet. They formed in 2007 and have been very successful, winning the Junior Chamber Music Cup in the 2008 Feis Ceoil, the Dublin Youth Orchestras Chamber Music Comeptition, and the DIT Chamber Music Competition last year.
All four are members of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, the Dublin Youth Orchestra’s Symphony Orchestra, and the DIT Symphony Orchestra. Among their other performances have been 'A Night of American Music', 'The Magic Flute', and several concerto concerts.
Rachel has been playing since she was about five, when she was first introduced to the violin by a cousin. For the past eight years she has studied at the Dublin Conservatoire with David O'Doherty, and she has been Leader of the Dublin Youth Symphony Orchestra for the last year.
Last year she travelled to China with the National Youth Orchestra, and at the end of this month will be part of a 10-day orchestra tour taking in Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow. On Tuesday 7 July she will be performing with the NYOI and world renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie in the National Concert Hall.
Rachel's talent was recently recognised locally by Kildare County Council when they gave her a grant of €500 towards upgrading her violin.
Now that her second level studies are over, she's looking to a future either in Medicine or Music.
Brian Byrne.
(This article appeared on the Kilcullen Page of last week's Kildare Nationalist.)
