Fun and engaging Irish traditional music lessons: researched & developed especially for children.
What you Will Learn:
Welcome to Whistleberry Forest, a musical land of curiosity, creativity, and wonder!
Whistleberry Tunes has been designed by Dr. Thomas Johnston, an Irish traditional musician, educator, and researcher, with over 18 years experience teaching the tin whistle in Ireland and internationally.
Whistleberry Tunes draws on Thomas' experience as a traditional musician, but also as an educator and a researcher in the areas of Irish traditional music, music education, and theatre for young audiences. In designing Whistleberry Tunes, Thomas set out to create a series of music lessons that would be fun, meaningful, and engaging for children (and their adults) at home and at school.
The course is suitable for beginner whistle players of all ages, but in particular, it is geared towards children aged between 7 and 77.
How you will learn in Whistleberry Tunes is very similar to how you would learn in a traditional teaching and learning context.
Musician, educator, researcher, Thomas Johnston's work lies in those spaces between Irish traditional music, performing arts for children and young audiences, community music, and music education practice and policy. He is Artistic Director of Ceol Connected, a company dedicated to promoting high quality and meaningful experiences of the traditional arts amongst children. He is also a lecturer in Irish traditional music, ethnomusicology, and world popular music at Dublin City University. In 2016, Thomas was a recipient of the Arts Council Ireland's Next Generation Bursary Award.
As Artistic Director of Ceol Connected, Thomas recently produced Tradoodle Festival, Ireland's first traditional arts festival exclusively for young audiences. Ceol connected has also created and toured several traditional music and theatrical productions for young audiences including: The Quiet Tree, The Far Field, The Wonderful Tune, Return of Spring, and A Winter Wish.