Our relationship with the larger Colourstrings family continued every summer and resulted in some wonderful friendships. This year Yvonne Frye made the trip to Galway. She spent three full days in the school working with students and teachers, sharing a lifetime of knowledge working with this methodology, and she really brought a level of detail to every gesture that was both intimidating and inspirational.

Our summer schools in Colourstrings methodology had now grown to such an extent that we had to employ two tutors from England to work in the school. We had over 40 teachers this year alone taking the first two levels of training. Everyone got introduced to Naheed Cruickshank that year, the lady who has since gone on to inherit Karens mantle as head trainer.

In the autumn we paired up with the Jazz festival for the first time to welcome a new genre into our environs. A northern pianist by the name of John Leighton. He was just exceptional with the students and had many of them improvising simple lines after just one workshop. Some of these students actually took this on board to the degree that they themselves went on to study Jazz playing further.

Our MCnG prize was won this year by Gordon O’Connor who has also gone on to qualify with a professional Performance Diploma.