When: First classes at the new venue will take place on the week beginning 10th April.
Where: Croi Laighean Development Centre, Easton Road, Leixlip
Wee are over the moon to be able to announce that we are moving into our new premises at the GAA Centre on Easton Road.
In 2015 we moved from our “Starter Home” in Maynooth Music Academy to our own premises on Main Street, Leixlip. A one room studio was opened on the June Bank Holiday weekend that year. By the end of summer 2016 we had taken the second room and brought in other teachers to teach Guitar and Piano as we became more established.
Right before everything was locked down, in the last quarter of 2019 down we had begun the first tentative steps toward finding a bigger venue where we could provide all of our tuition under one roof. To this end we looked high and wide but found that suitable venues in Leixlip were in short supply and whatever might have been available, out of our reach.
We approached Leixlip GAA with a proposal, if they were ever thinking of leasing out the new premises at Croi Laighean that we would be like to be considered as a tenant. To this end our presentation to them was focussed around the value we bring to our community. Our goal and our vision to be a Community Centred Organisation that breaks down the barriers to getting involved with music for both children and adults.
To back this up we were able to show how we started and curated the Leap Sessions Open Mic which ran for the guts of 18 months. Our Adult Singing Group – Couch to Performance where we offer the benefit of our training and experience to people who want to bring themselves on in terms of getting out there and banishing the demons of Performance Anxiety.
We started and run Pub Cór, a community initiative with the hashtag #wearenotachoir, rooted in fun and the Irish spirit of wanting to sing, to get the people of Leixlip out there to sing and benefit from the massive mental health benefits that singing in a large group brings.
We will be able to bring back GLEExlip and begin GLEExlip Junior. In this new space we will be in a position to offer Group Tuition for the first time. We will be able to bring our young musicians together and mentor them in groups at weekends so they can improve by playing music with other musicians and singers.
We can now provide Workshops in-house. Summer and Easter Camps all around music, inclusion and collaboration! Thankfully the Officers of the Board saw exactly what we are about and agreed that our values and ethos aligned, we would be the perfect tenants for them.
The Vocal & Music Academy belongs to the people of Leixlip. We teach your daughters and sons, we teach you, we bring you together. Without your support as well as those along the way that have played a role in our development we really could not be more grateful.
We look forward to your continued support in the years ahead!