Musical Director
Frank Kelly comes from Dublin and studied at Trinity College Dublin graduating with an Honours Degree in Music in 1981 and a Higher Diplome in Education in 1982.
He studied Piano and Organ at the Royal Irish Academy of Music where his teacher was the well-known Irish concert pianist John O’Conor. He won many scholarships at the Academy and was awarded Student of the Year in 1981. He was awarded the L.R.S.M. from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Piano Teaching and the L.R.I.A.M from the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Performance. Frank won many competitions at the Feis Ceoil, Feis Maitiú Dublin and Cork and at the Arklow Festival. He was a piano finalist on the RTE Musician of the Future competition.
He performed a number of recitals on RTE radio and around the country.
In 1983 Frank went to France to study piano on a French Government Scholarship for two years.
While at college Frank also studied Singing with Veronica Dunne at the Dublin College of Music; now the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama.
Frank’s teaching career at second level spanned thirty years until his retirement in 2014. He has extensive experience in the teaching and examination of music at Junior and Leaving Cert levels.
Frank has been teaching Piano for thirty-five years and has taught pupils from children to adults at all levels from Beginner to Diploma standard.
Frank has been a Voice-Coach and Choral Trainer for forty years. He has taught singing at all levels and trained all types of choirs including Children’s Choirs, Youth Choirs (of Girls, Boys and Mixed) and Adult Choirs (Male Voice, Ladies Choirs, Church Choirs and Choral Societies). At present he trains Bray Choral Society, Wicklow Choral Society, The Visionaries Choir (for people who are blind and vision-impaired), Ashford Church Choir and Newtown Male Voice Choir. He also directs his family vocal group, The Kelly Family Vocal Ensemble. As a Conductor Frank has long experience particularly in Choral Music but has conducted Instrumental works by Vivaldi, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bizet, Grieg and John Rutter. He has also conducted many Musicals in school productions.
Frank Kelly has always been an enthusiastic advocate of Community Music. His whole career has been dedicated to bringing good music into the lives of people in Wicklow through his work with choirs and piano-teaching but also through his Music Project in Ashford National School where he taught Singing and Choir and such instruments as Keyboard, Guitar, Recorder, Tin Whistle, Accordion and Violin to many children and introduced them to the wonderful world that is music.
Since his retirement from second-level teaching, Frank now devotes his time fully to Choir-training, Piano-teaching, Music-literacy development and directing his own family vocal group, The Kelly Family Vocal Ensemble.
Website: www.kellymusicservices.com
Email: frank@kellymusicservices.com