Ambassador - 
Ciara Considine

Ciara Considine grew up in Maidstone, gaining a County Scholarship on the flute and piano at the Kent Music Academy (formerly KCYI/JMS). While a pupil at the Maidstone Grammar School for Girls, she was a member of the Kent Youth Choir, the Kent County Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. She went to Manchester to train as a concert-pianist at the Royal Northern College of Music. After getting her Bachelor’s Degree in Music, she then gained a Postgraduate Diploma and a Master’s Degree in Music Performance (Piano) there too. In 2007 Ciara turned to her Irish roots and made albums of Irish folk music, named O Mo Chroi and Beyond the Waves. Both albums continue to have radio-play and sell online via all the major distributors, whilst she performs solos in the ‘trad sessions’ in the West of Ireland whenever time allows.

 

Ciara began conducting in 2009 and now conducts several youth and adult groups in Kent. Whilst being the Founder of the popular community choir, Maidstone Voices, she is also the first woman Music Director of the Maidstone Choral Union in its 121-year history. She is the Music Director of the large, classical choir, the East Malling Singers and the Founder of the Maidstone Youth Music Society (MYMS) Voices. She is the Conductor of the elite Kent Youth Choir, having worked for more than 20 years with all the Kent Junior Choirs. With the charity Beating Time, she founded a choir for inmates in HM Swaleside Prison, having greatly enjoyed her work with the inmates’ choir in Maidstone Prison. She also worked with Gareth Malone on the 2014 BBC2 series Sing While You Work, as she was the off-camera conductor of the P&O Ferries choir, who won the series competition under her direction. She recently founded the Kent Community Orchestra, for adult amateur instrumentalists, and greatly enjoys bringing musicians of all ages, abilities and walks of life, together.

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I love working in Kent as a conductor, as it feels like I’m giving back to the very area that nurtured me in my youth; being part of the town and county music ensembles gave me life-long sense of belonging. Coming from a disadvantaged home, I benefitted from full scholarships, bursaries and the generosity of individuals and groups such as KaMYMT. Now I am the musical director of 6 choirs and an orchestra. Young and old, I love keeping the wheel turning, helping to sow the seed of musical joy in a person’s life, regardless of background, culture, creed and means.