'Hold onto what you know makes you happy'

Music is at the heart of everything that Anne Moriarty does. Anne is the musical director and conductor of the Mayo Youth Orchestra, based at Music West in Castlebar. But in her day job as a primary school principal, Anne brings that love of music into the classroom to help break down barriers.

It’s no accident that the Kiltimagh native is doing what she is doing – music was very much a part of her childhood at home and school.

We sat down to chat about how Anne believes that music is good for the soul.

Angelina: Anne, thanks for talking to me. Tell me a little bit about your background.

Anne: I'm from Kiltimagh. I'm the third of four girls born to my parents Tom and Kathleen. I've been based in Kiltimagh all the time really, bar the times I went away to college, and I worked in Dublin for a while as well. 

Our house was always full of music when we were children, and everybody was always singing. I loved music and always wanted to play music. When I was a child, I would ask for instruments for Christmas. 

We went to St Aidan's National School. There's loads of music there. That started me on my formal music journey in that we all learned the piano. 

My mother and father were both very musical, but neither played an instrument. My mother particularly was adamant that we would all learn how to play. I started with piano, but by the time I came to about 10, I got the opportunity then to learn the violin. But I wanted to play trad because I didn't want to do exams.

Angelina: So you obviously were well bitten by the music bug, even at that early stage?

Anne: Absolutely. The secondary school, St Louis, had an orchestra - the school is renowned for music - and they discovered that myself and my friend played violin. We were brought into the orchestra, and once I started playing classical music, then like that, that was it. I had found my instrument. 

It's not that I had any burning ambitions to be a teacher or anything. It was going to be either education or music. That was basically it. Education was great because I could combine both. My degree is actually education and music, so I was able to do both. I did that at St Patrick's College in Drumcondra, which is now part of Dublin City University. I played in an orchestra the whole way through secondary school, and then I was playing music in college as well.

Angelina : Where was the next step on the journey for you after you qualified, Anne?

Anne: It was really funny because we had grown up with pianos in our classrooms and everything. You talk about the '70s and the '80s and everything else, but we always had instruments all around us. 

When I started teaching, I naively thought that there would be pianos in every classroom, and there weren't, so I said, okay, a guitar will be very useful. I taught myself how to play the guitar just so I'd have something to play in the classrooms. 

I started doing various ensembles in schools. I was always involved in music in schools. Then I started playing in the Mayo Concert Orchestra. George Lee had heard me playing at a wedding, and he asked me if I would be interested in joining the orchestra, which was fab. 

At the same time, I did my Masters in Education, but I looked at composition in music and composition in English, comparing the two. It was always kind of marrying the two, education and music together, which I think as a primary school teacher it really allows you to do that. 

I also did a course in conducting at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, really with the view to using it in school, to be quite honest. Even though it was an orchestral conducting course, it wasn't choral, it was absolutely orchestral. 

I always had this idea, I wanted to introduce instruments into school. There was no funding for the arts in school. There's scant funding for arts really, but particularly in school. My mother and myself bought the first two violins I had for my school because she would see how passionate I was about everything. She was always really, really supportive of everything I did. That's how I started. Then when Music Generation came along, it was brilliant, because they part-funded violins for us in the school, so I was able to do that.

Angelina: You did a Doctorate – tell us a little bit about that.

Anne: The Doctorate was in Education. I looked at multi-literacies, one part was creative teacher, and the other part of it was multi-literacies - looking beyond printed text, basically, for literacy, looking beyond just linguistics. It’s really timely now in terms of having children where English isn't their first language, you're looking at linguistics, you're looking at gesture, you're looking at the auditory, the visual, all of those things, which fits perfectly into music. It also fits into filmmaking as well. I actually focused on filmmaking for it.

Angelina: How did the Mayo Youth Orchestra opportunity evolve?

Anne: In 2011, the opportunity of being conductor and musical director came up for me and I thought, 'Why not?' I absolutely adore working with youth. I just love the energy from them. They are amazing. They come from right across the county, and we also have a musician from Leitrim who travels over because those opportunities aren't there. 

It's about providing those opportunities. It's really like they find like-minded people who are interested in music from right across the county. There's a lovely little social network with them, but sometimes, they just come because they want to play music, and there is the opportunity to play it. Not necessarily to meet other people who do, but they do. 

There's a lot of neurodiversity within the group as well. It's just about providing those possibilities and those opportunities. They take to it every single time. They work really hard, they're there every week and they give it their all. They never, ever let me down. We've done so many things with them. We've had so many adventures.

Angelina: What are some of the highlights?

Anne: We played - and I got to conduct - in the Musikverein, which is the Golden Hall in Vienna. Every year, my Dad and I would watch the New Year's Day concert from Vienna. And then to just think you can actually conduct there. That was absolutely fabulous. We've also played in Áras an Uachtaráin for President Michael D Higgins, and we've done really, really lovely tours.

Angelina: You have such a passion for what you do Anne - both teaching and conducting.

Anne: The energy I get back from them is just incredible because you couldn't do it if you didn't have that there. They turn up all the time. Some of them are coming from Lacken Cross, over in North Mayo. They're coming right across the county and from as far as Leitrim. Music is really good for everybody. It's just good for your soul. I call it my happy hour every week when I'm at the orchestra. We have a really busy year coming up next year.

Angelina: You mentioned that next year is an exciting year. Have you some plans already in place?

Anne: We do. We are going to collaborate with Stephen Doherty, the trad musician. He has composed music and wants to work between the genres of classical music, orchestral music and trad music as well, which is fabulous. He has composed some lovely music, and we're going to get stuck into that straight away in the new academic year come September, end of August kind of time. 

We're also collaborating with Donegal Youth Orchestra, and with the Coole Youth Orchestra from Gort as well. It will just be a really, really busy year because next year will probably be a touring year as well.

Angelina: What continues to drive you Anne - you're a primary school teacher and you have this busy music schedule so it must be hard at times.

Anne: I love it, and I love it because I get as much out of it as the students do. It provides all these opportunities and possibilities for them. I just love to see that. I love to watch them come along, take a piece, shape a piece, take a project, work with us. 

There are a lot of benefits, and you've got to really just manage time. There are times it's going to be far busier than others because you have got to make sure that you have the right arrangements, that you've selected your music, that you actually get the correct arrangements so that they suit the orchestra you have in front of you. They're all at an age where they're going to learn things really, really quickly, but they also want to enjoy what they're playing too. It's marrying all of that together, getting the right arrangements. Not taking too much on. You've got to give everybody time. Teenagers are really busy. Music is only one part of their life. A lot of them are in exam years and things like that, and they're still so dedicated.

Angelina: What advice would you give to people who want to pursue their dream of marrying two loves like you?

Anne: I suppose it's just not to let go of your dream. It's to hold on to what you know is what motivates you. Hold onto what you know makes you happy. You will find a way to marry it. I mean, I certainly never set out saying, 'In five years, I'm going to be playing in an orchestra. In 10 years, I'm going to be conducting the orchestra'. I took the opportunities that were there. I went with any opportunity I saw, and that I do with the Youth Orchestra as well. Now, above all times, there are so many ways into every avenue, whether it's the creative or you're straightforward, there are so many opportunities to push what you want out there.