Tullow student Clare is a prodigy on the ivories
Pianist Clare Healy from Tullow was shortlisted for a prize in the Frank Maher Music Award
PIANIST Clare Healy (18), a sixth-year student from Rathmore, Tullow, was a finalist at Ireland’s largest classical music competition for secondary school students.
Clare was one of just six musicians to make the final of the 2025 Top Security Frank Maher Classical Music Awards, one of whom went home with the top prize of €5,000.
The finalists each performed two pieces on a Steinway grand piano at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin on Friday evening, 24 October. Clare played Franz Liszt’s and Claude Debussy’s .
“With these pieces in particular, I really love the emotion, the story and images they create. It’s amazing to be able to share that with an audience,” she said.
Clare said the venue, with its paintings of doctors on the walls, “felt very historical.” “I don’t tend to get particularly nervous, but I wasn’t necessarily relaxed. It was exciting to get up there and play, and the piano was nice,” she said.
Lyric FM presenter Marty Whelan was master of ceremonies. “I listen to him every morning on the radio – it was great to meet him in person,” said Clare.
Dr Gerard Gillen, emeritus professor of music at NUI Maynooth, international classical pianist Veronica McSwiney and international violist Wolfgang Klos, professor of viola at the University of Music and the Performing Arts, Vienna, formed the judging panel for the evening.
The judges awarded Clare and four others a €300 bursary.
Clare’s mother, brother and ‘brilliant’ piano teacher professor Thérèse Fahy were in the audience on the night.
Her parents got her piano lessons at the Carlow College of Music with teacher Brian Keogh when she was six years’ old, “which gave me a great foundation and love for music,” she said.
The leaving certificate student began working with Ms Fahy in September 2024 at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, which, she says, has “really given me the opportunity to take my playing to the next level”.
“It’s more challenging as it caters to degree students more, but it was exactly what I was looking for.”
Achieving this high level of piano playing requires Clare to practice daily for between three to six hours. She says her school, St Leo’s College, has been “a great support. I get to practice on the piano every morning and at lunchtime”.
In addition to entering more music competitions and studying for her leaving certificate, Clare says she is planning to audition for the RIAM Bachelor of Music and Performance degree and continue working with Professor Fahy.
As for her plans with the €300 prize, Clare sensibly says: “I could see it going back into sheet music, and it could end up going towards the degree.”
