Jayne McConnon
📧 jayne.mcconnon@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

For the past 10 years Jayne has been teaching the internationally-acclaimed Kindermusik music and movement development programme to infants, toddlers and young children and also works extensively with children with special needs. She is constantly inspired that every child, regardless of their age or learning ability, responds and learns through music.

Originally from Sydney, Jayne had the privilege of growing up in a musical family and from a young age studied Classical Violin playing with the Western Sydney Youth Orchestra and various string ensembles. From a very early age she discovered her singing voice and has sung extensively in many choral groups and choirs in Australia and Ireland.

Now calling Tipperary home, Jayne is committed to sharing her experience and love of music with young and not-so- young in her community. In recent years she has been instrumental in establishing and directing a local adult choir and has been involved in various choral projects with the local Arts Festival. Jayne has had the pleasure of directing a number of choral projects with one of the local primary schools and she has established various pop up youth choirs for special occasions.

Dom O’Driscoll
📧.  dom.odriscoll@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Fidelma Nugent
📧  fidelma.nugent@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Fidelma is a music graduate of N.U.I. Maynooth, studying piano, accordion and violin. She works as a primary teacher at Our Lady of Mercy N.S. in Cahir and currently directs the school choir aswell as having a particular interest in the benefits of music for second language acquisition and
for pro-social behaviour.

She is one of the founding members and musical director of Cahir to Sing – a ladies’ choir based in Cahir which seeks to build community through singing and through members connecting artistically with each other.

Fidelma’s main interest is in Church Music and she is organist at St. Mary’s Church, Cahir where she began a young organists’ programme in 2016 to encourage children to participate in music in the liturgy.

She has been involved in numerous performances both as accompanist and conductor and accordionist with an Argentine Tango Trio.

Nicole Morris
📧  nicole.morris@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Nicole is a native of Thurles, Co.Tipperary. She started her musical training in St. Angela’s Academy of Music in Thurles, where she took lessons in Flute, Piano and Voice (Classical & Musical Theatre). In 2018, she graduated from CIT Cork School of Music with First Class Honours (BMus). During her time in Cork she was a member of many ensembles including CSM’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra and Cappella Lyrica, an equal voice choir which competed at both national and international levels.

Nicole is very passionate about music education, especially at primary school level. As part of her BMus degree Nicole took Class Teaching Modules which focused on teaching children basic musical concepts using the Kodaly Method. She teaches the RIAM Cara Awards here at Rockwell College Music Academy. Nicole also teaches in St. Angela’s Academy of Music, Thurles.

George (Gev) Barrett
📧 gev.barrett@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Gev Barrett has been teaching drums for over 10 years, and is a full time professional drummer based in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. He currently teaches out of his own school based in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary and out of Rockwell Music Academy. He drums with Crow Black Chicken and Philip Donnelly’s Mid Atlantic Rhythm Section, recording on 7 albums and multiple EP’s, touring extensively in the USA, UK and Europe, sharing the stage with multiple artists. Gaining from his experience of touring and recording he has developed a lesson plan which can be adapted to help each student progress in their preferred field of drumming, from rudimental drumming, to styles like Rock, Jazz and Latin. His first book for beginner drummers is set for release in 2019.

Victoria Birlea
📧 victoriabirlea@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Nicole Butler
nicole.butler@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Nicole is from Cahir Co. Tipperary. She has a true love for everything singing, dancing and acting. Nicole studied a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Theatre studies in University College Cork and is a highly trained vocalist. She has her vocal grades and has achieved an Honours in her Senior Certificate with The Royal Irish Academy of Music, she has also completed up to grade 7 in Speech and Drama with The Leinster School of Music and Drama. Last year Nicole completed an Acting for Camera course with The Gaiety School in Dublin.

Nicole is a professional events singer and has performed in many plays and musicals, such as Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Miserables with musical societies in Tipperary, Cork and Waterford. She has a huge passion for boosting her students confidence, reaching their full potential and having lots of fun!

Quynh Shannon

  quynh.shannon@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

A native of Hanoi, Vietnam, Quynh Shannon began her studies in piano studies at the Hanoi Conservatory, earning an undergraduate performance degree. She was awarded a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Program) scholarship to complete her Masters degree (also in piano performance) at the Hochschule fuer Musik Karslruhe, under Michael Uhde, and studied chamber music accompaniment under Wolfgang Jahn. In this time she performed many piano concerti with orchestra, including Schumann concerto, Chopin 2^ndconcerto, Poulenc double etc.

On successful completion of her masters, she undertook a second masters degree at the Hochshule fuer Musik Mannheim, specialising in Lied accompaniment and chamber music performance under Michael Hauber.

On moving to the USA in 2009, Quynh was appointed Piano Instructor at Savannah State University, a position she held for 10 years before moving in 2019 to Ireland with her family.

Dereck Withero

dereck.withero@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Darragh Johnson

darragh.johnson@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Darragh is from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. He completed the Bachelor of Music at MTU, Cork,
where he achieved first class honours. At MTU, he took lessons in Voice, Flute and Piano, along
with receiving training in Counterpoint and Harmony. Darragh has been taught by some fine musicians, including Eilis O’Sullivan (Flute), John Molloy (Voice), and Rockwell Music
Academy’s own Suzanne Buttimer (Piano and Voice), to name but a few.

Over the years, Darragh has been involved in many amateur musical productions across Munster.
His most recent outing was in a production of ‘Rent’ by MTU Musical Society, where he played the role of Tom Collins. In a professional capacity, Darragh has been apart of the chorus in Irish
National Opera’s production of Bizet’s ‘Carmen’.

Along with this, Darragh is also a member of the band ‘Code of Behaviour’, in which he plays the
tenor saxophone. They have performed at many large scale events, including Whelan’s, Electric Picnic and Cork Jazz Festival.

Richie Delahunty
📧 richie.delahunty@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Richard Delahunty is a multi-instrumentalist from Cahir, Co.Tipperary. Banjo, mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar and bodhran are his instruments used on a weekly basis in performing Irish Traditional, Folk, Americana, Rock, Funk and Jazz music.

Richie at age 25 is well travelled throughout Ireland and abroad having played with bands such as Moxie, Goitse, Cúig, Boxing Banjo, The Fureys, Acabella, Chris Leonard, NOMIS, Bene &
Cormac and many more. His most recent venture was playing Irish music with Moxie at the Dubai
Expo for the months of October and March on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and

National Concert Hall Dublin.

He has been involved in numerous projects as a recording/session artist for producer Billy

Farrell (The Corrs, Brian Kennedy) and a number of others.

Richie is an Ireland title holder in U18 and Senior Mandolin as well as Senior Miscellaneous
for tenor guitar. He has recently mentored the group ‘Lasrach’ to All Ireland victory at Siansa Gael
Linn 2022 in NCH Dublin. He is a graduate of the UCC BA Music and Arts degree and currently

works full time at music gigging, teaching and recording.

Tommy Buckley
📧 tommy.buckley@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Tommy Buckley has been working as a freelance guitarist, composer, and teacher for over 18 years. He has toured and recorded with many international acts such as; Celtic Woman, Tommy Flemming, Derek Ryan, and the National Concert Orchestra.

Marina Moskalyk
📧 marina.moskalyk@rockwellmusicacademy.ie

Fiona McHugh
RMA Administrator

📧info@rockwellmusicacademy.ie