Marguerite’s Story

Music started at the small age of 6 when my amazing parents gave me the opportunity to learn piano. My older sister once said, “If you can play piano, you can play any instrument” and how right she was! At the age of 7, I started to learn violin. After a few years, I joined the local orchestra and at the age of 10, I played along with the Church choir every Sunday. I had the joy of learning a range of music, particularly, Hymns, Classical, and Traditional Music. I worked through all the grade examinations to Grade 8.

At Grammar School, music was of course my favourite subject, taking it to GCSE and A Level, I loved to play and compose music.

My passion for music didn’t stop there; I furthered my study to third level education. On successfully completing my music degree at Queen’s University, Belfast, my father presented me with the harp as a graduation gift. Since the age of 3, I had wanted to play it, so my dreams had all come true! After almost two years playing the harp, I decided to enter into the All Ireland music competition just for fun. To my surprise, I got through the county (Antrim) competition into the province (Ulster) competition right through to become an All Ireland Finalist.

Since then I have played the harp at concerts and events from County Antrim to County Waterford.