Mike McGeary - Royal Conservatoire Scotland
Thu, Nov 17th 2016 at 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Mr. McGeary will address the Club on his career in teaching music (in particular the classical guitar) and his experiences lecturing in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
H&R: Peter Brown and Peter McCrossan
VoT: Paul Begley
The guest speaker at tonight’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Motherwell and Wishaw was Mike McGeary who was born in Edinburgh and brought up in the mining village of Whitecraig, East Lothian.
Mike took up the mandolin, aged 8, joining the Edinburgh Ukrainian Mandolin Orchestra through a connection with his neighbour. By 11, he had moved on to guitar and was soon serving his apprenticeship playing for the discerning dancers in Lothian’s miners’ welfare clubs!
In 1978, Mike became the first guitarist to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), graduating to become a successful teacher in Edinburgh schools in 1982. Dozens of his pupils progressed to study at prestigious conservatoires throughout the UK, and abroad, and he was named Yamaha Instrumental Teacher of the Year for 1999. Mike held the appointment of Head of the Edinburgh School’s Music Service from 2004 until 2012, when he returned to full-time teaching, writing and playing. He is also a classical guitar lecturer in the Junior Department of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
During his career, Mike has given numerous solo recitals and concerto performances, throughout the UK, and has broadcast on the BBC and commercial radio, commissioning several new works en route. Mike said, tongue in cheek, that talking at after dinner events could be a new career path for him and he, certainly, entertained the members with some wonderful stories of his life in music.
Mike brought along two of his young students from the Conservatoire, Lucy Thomas and Calum Hopkins, who each played a guitar solo, then came together in a delightful duet. A wonderful way to close an evening’s entertainment. A richly deserved vote of thanks was given by Paul Begley.
President James Gibbons was the winner of the bonus ball three-week roll-over.
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