'What we play is life.'
– Louis Armstrong

Music Without Borders

Founded in 1994, the New School is a comprehensive music centre, combining music tuition of the highest standard with innovative approaches to music education. Whether your interest is in classical music, Irish traditional music, jazz, world music, popular music or innovative technology, there are many different paths by which you may enter the New School. Inside, our rooms are filled with people of all ages, skill levels and backgrounds who have come together to explore the universal language of music.

A School for Everyone

Our students – over twelve hundred each term – range in age from three to eighty-something. (For an article on older music students, see SilverCircle.ie.) While we welcome those who study music purely for enjoyment (and offer a variety of instrumental, singing, theory and music technology courses for beginners), we are also committed to provide training for those who want to make a career of music. We offer tuition in most instruments and theory to teaching diploma level and beyond, as well as training in a number of specialised styles and instrumental techniques. Professional musicians and singers from all over the world have used our practice facilities, and the school has even hosted a unique site-specific art installation!

External Programmes

In addition to the teaching offered in our city centre facilities, the New School has developed, over the past several years, programmes designed to bring music to the broader community. These include:

• The Waltons World Masters series, which has brought world-renowned musicians to Ireland for performances, workshops, masterclasses and concerts for schools.
• An extensive Outreach Programme of interactive music and cultural workshops and 'In-School' music courses that have taken place at several hundred schools and other organisations in Dublin and around the country.
• Music at Work, a programme designed to bring group music tuition right into Dublin-area workplaces.

Collaborations

Collaboration with leading music and arts organisations in Ireland is an important aspect of our work. The New School has collaborated – both in its Outreach Programme and Waltons World Masters series – on a number of projects with such organisations as:

• The National Concert Hall
• Music Network
• Irish World Academy of Music and Dance
• The Ark
• Temple Bar Cultural Trust
• IRMA Trust
• Improvised Music Company
• Dublin Flamenco Festival
• Big Bang Festival of Rhythm
• Musical Youth Foundation
• Central Remedial Clinic
• Our Lady's Children's Hospital
• RTÉ lyric fm

The Martin A. Walton Memorial Scholarships

Musical promise and achievement are rewarded at the New School through substantial annual scholarships and prizes. Two of our scholarships are offered specifically to mature students and beginners, groups most in need of the confidence-boost that comes from winning a music competition. See Scholarships & Prizes for more information.

If you want to prepare for a career in music; if you want to learn to play an instrument (or to become more proficient on an instrument); if you want to understand and appreciate music, in all its varieties and forms, more deeply; or if you simply want to participate in the joy of music-making, the New School of Music is here to serve you.

John Mardirosian
Director

Read a profile of John Mardirosian in the Sunday Tribune (requires Adobe Reader).

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