I began my journey in life in Newry, Co.Down, N.Ireland. I am the third in a lovely family of seven children. I began to learn to play the piano when I was seven or eight under the guidance of a wonderfully inspirational man - Mons August Toremans who instilled in me a great love of music.
     I began to learn how to play the trumpet while in my second year at the St.Colmans College in Newry. Again I was very fortunate to have had a magnificent teacher - Mr.Luke Burke - whose enthusiasm, kindness, knowledge and patience are seemingly boundless.

    Unsure of what I wanted to do at the age of eighteen, I suddenly found myself studying music in London at the West london Institute Of Higher Education. After spending two marvellous years there I returned to N.Ireland to do a degree in music and the Music Teachers Diploma at the University Of Ulster at Jordanstown on the North shore of Belfast Lough. In my last year at Jordanstown I became one of the resident pianists in the Skandia restaurant located in Howard street, in the center of Belfast.
    Upon completion of the Music Teacher's Diploma, I took up employment with the Western Education & Library Board as a Peripatetic Brass Tutor. This involved dispensing brass tuition to a very wide range of pupils in over a dozen schools in Derry, Omagh and Strabane. Outside of work, I sang in both of Derry's Cathedral choirs, (St.Eugenes & St. Columbs), took part in productions by the local amateur operatic society, acted in the Playhouse Theatre and sang in a barbershop quartet:

                     "The Old Spice Boys".

In 1995 I became the Musical Director of the Letterkenny Music & Drama group and over the next three years we had a lot of fun (I hope) doing 'Fiddler On The Roof', 'South Pacific' & 'The Sound Of Music'.

In 1997 I, together with Rachel ni Chnoic of Letterkenny, formed the Jazz Duo 'Shades of Blue'. For almost two years we performed in venues in Letterkenny (The Mount Errigal Hotel), Ballybofey (Kee's & Jackson's Hotel) and Derry ( The Everglades Hotel ).

    Because of my fascination with technology and the need for a new challenge I decided to take a career break in 1998 and do the MSc in Music Technology at the University Of Limerick. I can safely say that it was the hardest thing that I have ever done with many many hours spent in front of a dear Power Machintosh monitor trying to get to grips with some of the elements of Music Technology.

Since September 1998 I have been employed by the University of limerick in the department of Computer Science & Information Systems as a Teaching Assistant/Assistant lecturer.

I am becoming increasingly involved in some of the musical life of limerick. In March 99 I was asked to write the music for a production of the Henry James play 'The Turn Of The Screw', which was presented by the Granary players in the Beltable theatre. In December 99 I accompanied the limerick singers in a concert in the Hunt Museum. I am the rehearsal pianist for the Shannon Musical Society and we recently staged a production of the musical 'The Hot Mikado' which took place at the end of February / beginning of March. The show has been nominated for four awards by the Association of Irish Musical Societies. The nominations are for :

Best overall show

Best choreography

Best choreographers

Best comedian (Aodhan Fox as KO KO)

The nominations are decided upon by an adjudicator who spends almost a year traversing the length and breadth of the country, encountering the productions of the participant societies. This year the number of shows that were adjudicated was over 80.