Blog 3: Tríona Walsh, Opera Singer, TAP Artist and Music Educator
Students from Scoil Mhuire Eimhin climbing trees in Curraghchase Forest Park. Image credit: Éilís Murphy, Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award 2025
Tríona Walsh is an opera singer, collaborative artist and music educator. Her music education practice is rooted in the use of a child’s first instruments – the voice and the body- as a medium for expression, communication, play, and artistic exploration.
Making music together provides children with a plethora of musical and non-musical benefits including building coordination and motor skills, resilience, empathy, and communication skills through co-operative objectives.
Triona is a TAP trained artist and works regularly with Music Generation partnerships and Sing Ireland, leading group singing days and providing classroom-based projects in various primary, secondary and early years settings. Her philosophy is one of inclusivity, differentiation and accepting every offer as an artistic expression of the child. Having fun and making ‘mistakes’ are essential ingredients in her collaborative process.
In 2025, Tríona collaborated with composer Fiona Linnane and classroom teacher Nuala Dooly to deliver Little Woodland Heights, a programme of interactive music-making for children with students at Scoil Mhuire Eimhín in Co Limerick. Little Woodland Heights was one of three recipients of the 2025 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award.
In the third post of her blog series, soprano Tríona Walsh shares the beginnings of Little Woodland Heights — an interactive music-making project with students at Scoil Mhuire Eimhín, Co. Limerick. Tríona talks about the class trip to Curraghchase Forest Park – collecting data and climbing trees.
Little Woodland Heights – Collecting Data and Climbing Trees
Curraghchase Forest Park, located between the towns of Adare and Askeaton in County Limerick, was once the home of the de Vere family, the most notable being poet and critic Sir Aubrey Thomas de Vere. This was an ideal destination for our data gathering expedition. As well as having a stunning Arboretum, there was a lovely picnic area and wooden playground for the children to enjoy. On that beautiful day in May, sunscreen and hydration were a must.
The first piece of data to be collected was the ‘Dream Texts’. Children had to record five words inspired by their dreams from the night before. These words would be recorded during their field recording if someone selected a tree containing a Cranny. Then we separated into two groups and got into an ‘order’ which would inform all activities from data collection to performance. Children were organised by the day of their birth. The person born on the earliest day of the month was first in the order, the person born on the latest day would be last.
We had explored the importance of biodiversity for sustainability. Each child selected their own tree – a tree that stood out to them. The trunk of the tree and its branches determined the rhythmic structure of the piece. The children learned that the arrangement of leaves on a stem is known as Phyllotaxis in Botany. The arrangement of the leaves in a spiral, whorled, alternate or opposite pattern determined the shape of the melody which the children would later compose. We needed to work out the Genus of the tree, and this would be used later as a call to end a section within the performance. One more thing, each child needed to collect two ‘Bataí’ from the forest floor. These would become their instruments.
The children were tired, but happy as they set off on their journey back to Effin. They would sleep well that night and were looking forward to collecting their ‘Dream Texts’ the following morning. We were all curious as to what our dreams might be like after such a beautiful day in the forest.
After that would come the ‘hard’ work. We had to start building the composition and practicing our skills. Patience, determination and resilience would be key. Every performer would also have a job to do during our tree planting ceremony. Have I not mentioned that yet? Two new, beautiful Irish Native trees would soon be planted on the grounds of Effin National School.
Students from Scoil Mhuire Eimhin planting tree with Tríona Walsh.
Image credit: Scoil Mhuire Eimhin, Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award 2025
