SRU senior travels to Emerald Isle for prestigious piano academy
Kaitlynn Sinclair's trip to Dublin wasn't a typical vacation abroad to see the sights.
Instead of touring castles and museums, the Slippery Rock native spent most of her time in rehearsal rooms and concert halls.
The Slippery Rock University senior was picked as one of 18 young pianists from around the world to take part in the fourth Dublin International Piano Festival and Summer Academy from July 23 to Aug. 1.
“I flew out of Pittsburgh with a stop in Charlotte, (N.C.)” said Sinclair, before flying on to Dublin.
“We left from Charlotte at 7 p.m. and arrived in Dublin at 6 a.m. It was 2 a.m. our time and already 7 a.m. their time,” she said of the time differential.
“I went straight to St. Aiden's Guesthouse, a bed and breakfast where I met the other entrants,” she said.
“There were only 15 students there. I don't know what happened to the other three,” she said.
“A couple had their husbands with them. And there were two other students who had their parents with them who were celebrating their anniversaries,” said Sinclair, who made the trip solo.
Following a reception, Sinclair said she spent a great deal of time taking lessons, attending piano seminars, performing in two master classes and practicing for the final day's concert.
“I had two lessons and played in two master classes,” she said.
The classes took place at the Dublin Institute of Technology.
It was there that she met and heard piano legend Barry Douglas, one of only two non-Russians to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
She said, “He's a big deal. He's very loved in Ireland, very well known.”
“I never thought a piano recital, classical piano, could have been so entertaining. Barry Douglas demanded your attention,” she said.
“He did two master classes. You would have thought he was just a piano teacher who taught in a private studio,” she said.
Since the institute was 20 minutes away from the guest house, Sinclair had the choice of walking or taking a bus. She walked “because I didn't feel like paying six euros” for the bus ride.She got to see some of Dublin's architecture on her daily commutes.“The way they have it there, it was more like tiny houses, much more vertical than horizontal like they have here,” she noted.“It's a lot colder over there than here. You got all the seasons except winter in one day, it seemed,” she said. “You really needed sweatshirts and umbrellas. Luckily when I was walking, there wasn't a downpour.”“I don't particularly care for overcast weather, but it kind of felt nice when coming back to 90-degree weather. When I got back I was like 'Oh, my gosh, it is so hot here,'” Sinclair said.The institute's director, Archie Chen, made dinner for the students at his home.Sinclair said she doesn't know if fish and chips are typical Irish cuisine, but she was surprised to discover the popularity of Indian dishes among the Irish.“They really like to make Indian-style stuff. I don't know if it's easy to make, but Indian food was becoming a big thing,” she said.She found the Irish very friendly.“They were fond of talking about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and that was kind of annoying. I had two cab drivers ask me who I was voting for,” she said.It wasn't all lessons and seminars on piano technique and piano tuning.She got to visit Trinity College, created by royal charter in 1592. Located on a beautiful campus in the heart of Dublin's city center, Trinity is Ireland's highest-ranked university and home to 17,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.She was also able to squeeze in visits to Powerscourt House and gardens in County Wicklow, outside Dublin, and the 800-year-old St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.
And she visited Glendalough, meaning “valley of two lakes,” a glacial area in County Wicklow, renowned for a 6th-century monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin.And she did make the almost obligatory visit to an Irish pub, “but since I don't drink, I don't know how good the Guinness was.”Sinclair said between the classes, seminars and performances, she was hard-pressed to get in even an hour's practice at the piano before her performance July 30.“My public performance was on the very last day of the festival in the Hugh Lane Gallery,” she said.Sinclair selected Schubert's “Sonata in A Major D664 Opus 120 Third Movement.”She said the festival and academy proved to be everything she had hoped.“I'm a senior, and my senior piano recital is Nov. 9. My number one point of going to Ireland was learning so much and getting better at piano. And that definitely was accomplished,” she said.Sinclair plans to graduate in May and then get a master's degree in piano pedagogy in preparation for a teaching position at the university level.
