!!!! Blog 4: Tríona Walsh, Opera Singer, TAP Artist and Music Educator
In the final post of her guest blog series, soprano Tríona Walsh reflects on how Little Woodland Heights with students at Scoil Mhuire Eimhín culminated in performance, collaboration and the planting of native Irish trees.
Little Woodland Heights – Planting Trees
Nuala Dooly’s third and fourth class from Effin National School in County Limerick, rolled their sleeves up and embraced the challenges that came their way during the next few weeks. Assembling the piece was no small task. Students needed time and space to develop skills – both musical and leadership- everyone was important and they each needed to feel confident in their roles. They learned how to stick with difficulty and to embrace uncertainty. They learned to be patient and to trust the process. These young musicians demonstrated an intuitive ability to collaborate and to assist each other.
The camaraderie of each group was further enhanced the day we chose the tree which we were going to plant. Part of Nick Roth’s vision with Little Woodland Heights is to re-seed native trees in school environments, so we searched through the Tree Council of Ireland website and discussed native Irish trees. My group settled upon Arbutus unedo – The Strawberry Tree, a small ever green tree which may have arrived in Ireland over the land bridge from Brittany. It only grows in the mediterranean and certain parts of Ireland. Fiona Linnane’s group chose Malus x zumi – The Crabapple Golden Hornet. The prospect of flowers and fruit were the unique selling point of this fabulous tree. My group decided that because we were such a great team, we needed a name. There was much discussion and a final vote led to the selection of ‘The Sweet Tree Huggers’. This, of course, inspired Fiona’s group who settled on ‘The Golden Crabapples’.
The day it all came together was ‘Dress Rehearsal Day’. It was time to perform for each other. Desks were pushed back, seating was arranged for the audience and the logs from the outdoor classroom were brought in to provide a ‘set’. Bataí, twigs, leaves, musical scores and items for the tree planting component were set in place. Our two trees were ready to be featured – almost as the ‘guests of honour’.
The children were very excited to be performing for each other. We discussed what it meant to be a ‘good audience’. They were attentive and provided very insightful feedback to each other. They keenly observed what worked well for the other group and thought about how to apply that to their own performance. I was impressed with what they noticed. They were fair with their feedback and very willing to take on board suggestions from their peers.
Little Woodland Heights project at Scoil Mhuire Eimhin
Finally, the big day had arrived! Parents took their seats and children from other classes in the school also attended. There was a buzz of excitement in the room. The children performed their music with enthusiasm and gusto and each child took their task in the tree planting ceremony very seriously. Holes were dug, roots were separated, fertiliser was added and the tree was watered. They had composed the music to accompany this beautiful ritual of planting two native Irish trees in their school. Of course, this was all done in the classroom. Thank goodness it was a glorious June day, because after the performance, we had to head outside to the school field to dig actual holes and plant these two lovely trees for real! Nuala had arranged for an ice-cream van to arrive just as the work was done.
Scoil Mhuire Eimhin students planting a tree with Triona Walsh during Little Woodland Heights. Image credit: Scoil Mhuire Eimhin
Scoil Mhuire Eimhin students planting a tree with Fiona Linnane during Little Woodland Heights. Image credit: Scoil Mhuire Eimhin
These children will remember summer term, 2025 forever. They can head down to the field in their school to read the plaques beneath their trees. They will watch them grow and they will enjoy the flowers and fruit that they see each year. Such is the legacy of Little Woodland Heights.
‘Learning music through trees, and forests through music’.
Little Woodland Heights was a recipient of a 2025 Portal Documentation Award. Watch the Documentation video here:
!!!! Blog 1: Tríona Walsh, Opera Singer, TAP Artist and Music Educator
In the first post of our new guest blog series, soprano Tríona Walsh shares how Little Woodland Heights began – an interactive music-making project with students at Scoil Mhuire Eimhín, Co Limerick.
Little Woodland Heights – Getting Started!
Little Woodland Heights was developed in 2015 by composer Nick Roth with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland, The Ark, California Academy of Sciences and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Nick is a Dublin based Saxophonist and Composer whose works are rooted in philosophical ideas and developed through improvisational exploration. His vision for Little Woodland Heights is ‘learning music through trees, and forest through music’. In 2024 CoMA (Contemporary Music for All), funded by Diaphonique – The Franco-British-Irish fund for Contemporary Music, worked with Nick to facilitate training and delivery of the project in London, Yorkshire and Limerick.
CoMA approached composer, Fiona Linnane to engage her expertise in delivering the project in Ireland. Fiona founded CoMA Limerick in 2008, a collective of composers, rebranding in 2021 to become ‘Limerick New Music Ensemble’ (LNME). I joined LNME in 2021 as a vocalist and composer and had also worked with Fiona on a number of projects. Through our collaboration with the Cork ETB School of Music on ‘Cogarnach’, a Crawford Art Gallery, Building as Witness Project Award, we realised that we complimented each other in approach and philosophy and were a dream team for an Arts in Education residency! So we embarked on a few days of training and a lovely field trip to Curraghchase Forest Park with Nick Roth.
Fiona identified Nuala Dooly, a TAP trained teacher from Effin National School in Co Limerick, as an ideal collaborator on our first ‘Little Woodlands Heights’ adventure. Effin National School is situated in the beautiful Ballyhoura Region which stretches from Co Limerick and into North East Cork. Fiona had previously worked with Nuala’s 3rd & 4th Class group as part of a whole school BLAST residency and she knew that the children would be up for something unique and challenging.
We had our team! We had our plan! So we were ready.
The first part of our mission… to build relationships and to establish a safe and encouraging space for creative exploration.
Students and Creative Practitioners from Scoil Mhuire Eimhin during Little Woodland Heights. Image credit: Scoil Mhuire Eimhin and Éilís Murphy, Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award 2025