About Us
Teaching is a gift. Learning is another gift. When these two qualities meet the result can be a rich and rewarding experience. At the Academy it is a frequent experience.
Since its foundation in 1848 the Royal Irish Academy of Music has been a forum for the highest ideals of music education in Ireland. As a thirty-two county institution, the Academy embodies and reflects the traditions and heritage of Irish musicianship, providing a comprehensive musical education from pre-instrumental to post-graduate level.
The Teaching Staff includes many international and national prize-winners, members of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTE Concert Orchestra, and many individuals whose names have become synonymous with music education in Ireland. With the resources of such talent at its disposal, it is no wonder that Academy students have been accepted for further study at the most prestigious music institutions around the world. Today, with recently established higher education courses, the Academy is in turn able to offer the finest Irish musical training to students from all corners of the world.
Throughout its 150-year history, the Academy has nurtured and developed the talents of many of Ireland's finest musicians who have gone on not only to enrich Irish musical life in all its forms but also to act with great success as musical ambassadors abroad. The Academy is equally proud of the thousands of students who leave as highly-educated music-lovers and teachers, thus ensuring that an appreciation of music is transmitted from generation to generation.
As a foundation stone of musical life in Ireland the Academy is confident of continuing to develop its status as a place of response, excitement, innovation and achievement in Ireland in the twenty-first century.