Dr Evelyn Grant, musician and arts advocate

Music has been a huge part of Evelyn Grant’s life for as long as she can remember. Evelyn grew up in Donnycarney, Co Dublin, the second youngest of five siblings. Her mother was a piano teacher who demonstrated the importance of education while her father, who worked for the OPW, believed talent was a privilege that needed to be shared with others. This emphasis on the transformative power of music and education has informed Evelyn’s life as a performer and passionate advocate for the arts. 

Her appetite for learning was encouraged during her studies at Scoil Áine primary school and Manor House secondary school, both in Raheny, while her love of music was nurtured at the College of Music in Chatham St, which had a vocational ethos that emphasised the importance of inclusion. She played the piano and the violin before discovering a harmonious partner in the flute when she was 13 years old. She caught up quickly, joining the newly-established Irish Youth Orchestra in 1970 when she was 14. It was a life-changing moment for the young musician in more ways than one. Making music with others brought a whole new dimension to her life, while she also met her future husband, Gerry Kelly, who played cello with the orchestra.  

After a year studying English and history at UCD, Evelyn followed her destiny, professionally and personally, marrying Gerry and joining him in Germany, where she completed a music degree and gave birth to their first child, a daughter. The family later returned to Ireland, settling in Cork, where they quickly felt at home and immersed themselves in a thriving music and arts scene.  

When Evelyn began teaching in Cork School of Music, she immediately became involved in social inclusion projects, with the aim of ensuring access to music education for children from all backgrounds. In 1984, she and a colleague set up the Children's Music Hour, family-based performances in the School of Music which were later extended to schools. In the 1990s, Evelyn and Gerry organised musical performances for the Tall Ships race in Cork and became increasingly involved in community events. Out of this grew the Cork Pops Orchestra, which has become a much-loved fixture on the city’s musical calendar, bringing the magic of music to thousands of primary and post-primary students every year. For Evelyn, people don’t need to play or perform to enjoy the benefits of music, something that the Cork Pops Orchestra demonstrates with its emphasis on audience participation and active listening. She cherishes encounters with the pupils and teachers who tell her about the lasting impact the events had on them. Another proud achievement has been Cork Music Works, which she set up with music therapist Judith Brereton in 1999 to ensure people with a disability would be represented in music performances during Cork’s tenure as European Capital of Culture in 2005. 

In her work, Evelyn says she has been buoyed by a large community of like-minded people interested in social inclusion and musical education, highlighting the works of groups such as the Cork Academy of Music, the Barrack Street Band, Cork Community Artlink and in recent years, the Kabin Studio in Knocknaheeny. She has also derived much inspiration from her long-running association with the West Cork Chamber Music Festival.  

After almost three decades of teaching, she retired from the Cork School of Music in 2009, and has been busier than ever, becoming involved in a range of projects, including working with the Lantern Project and Cork Migrant Centre at Nano Nagle Place. Then there is her involvement in perennial favourites such as the Lord Mayor’s Tea Dance, a multi-generational evening of song and dance. Evelyn has made it her life’s work to promote music and the arts as a means of self-expression and social connection, and this extends to the importance of performing in healthcare settings. During Covid especially, she says bringing music to care homes was a hugely rewarding experience.  

Along the way, she and Gerry have shared their passion for music with their four children, all of whom have made a career in the field. Evelyn has also been a shining example of lifelong learning, becoming the first Irish person to receive a Master’s Degree in Community Music, and earning a PhD from UCC for her research on social inclusion in music education in Ireland. 

Evelyn added a further string to her bow when she joined RTÉ Lyric FM as a part-time presenter in 2000, helming the Weekend Drive programme for many years. She embraced the opportunity and found presenting a natural progression from teaching music and talking to concert audiences. It was also a perfect fit with her work on inclusion — once again sharing the joy of music with a diverse community of all ages. Her engaging presence was a source of comfort to many during lockdown, when Lyric became a vital means of connection for people seeking respite from the endless stream of Covid-related news. At the time, Ann-Marie Power, RTÉ group head of arts and culture described the station as “a salve for the soul providing people with the world’s most beautiful music and serving as a cultural force in Irish society”. 

Having made a life in Cork and raised her family there, Evelyn considers herself an adopted Corkonian, although she enjoys the best of both worlds when it comes to GAA rivalry — if Cork and Dublin are playing, she just goes for the winning team. Her own musical tastes are broad, taking in everything from musicals to traditional music; the next generation is already following in her footsteps and Evelyn is delighted to see her young granddaughter taking lessons in piano and violin. She wants everyone to have the same opportunities and her ongoing work reminds us that music and the arts are not a luxury but an essential. “I've always understood the benefit of music, not just as a profession, it’s that collective thing of being in an audience.”