2020 - 2029
Honorary Citation by Professor Stephen Byrne and Dr Niamh Dennehy for Tomás McCarthy
It is both a pleasure and an honour to introduce Tomás McCarthy, an inspiring educator and renowned conductor and musical director. We also welcome Tomás’ wife Terry and their three children Cian, Maeve and Maria.
Tomás is best known and admired for his work with Cork Youth Orchestra (CYO) as conductor and musical director. He was assistant musical director of CYO from 1986 and is now musical director since 1998. The impact of Tomás’ leadership and sustained commitment to youth orchestras is phenomenal and exceptional. Tomás has motivated, taught and nurtured young musicians in many ways throughout his long association with Cork Youth Orchestra. His enthusiasm, attention to detail and innovative approach to music education is admirable. Tomás has devoted his life to working with young musicians in their formative years and this lifetime commitment has been central to the success of CYO as a community-based orchestra of enormous standing and repute.
Today, we wish to recognise and honour his lifetime of selfless work and his outstanding contribution to the youth and community of Cork over the past almost 40 years where he has provided young musicians with wonderful opportunities to perform at the highest professional level.
Background
Tomás was born and raised in Rosebank, South Douglas Road into a family of musicians. His mother Máire and father Tomás were both very talented musicians.
Tomás completed a Dip CSM in Cork School of Music in 1983, a B. Mus at UCC in 1990 and an MA in CIT (now MTU) in 2005. Tomás has been a Lecturer in Viola and a conductor at the MTU Cork School of Music for 40 years. He has studied abroad, including with Dr. Suzuki in Finland learning the Suzuki teaching methods, and learning about international learning methodologies in musicianship. He has specialised in conducting young instrumentalists in the Cork School of Music, the Cork Youth Orchestra and at orchestral courses in Ireland and Scotland. Tomás is a founder member of the Cork School of Music Senior Orchestra and Cork School of Music Chamber Orchestra.
Tomás studied his principal instrument, the viola, with John Vallery, having started on the violin with Renée Lane, Florence Pedder, and Michael McNamara. He studied the trombone with Billy McCarthy and piano with Florence Good. As a violist he has played with numerous orchestras and musical ensembles including the R.T.E. Concert Orchestra.
Achievements
Tomás first conducted the Cork Youth Orchestra in Siamsa Tíre Tralee in 1987, and his first City Hall concert was in 1988. He brought the orchestra to perform in the Aula Maxima here in UCC in 1989 and of course there was the memorable summer concert on the Quad in 2015. The orchestra are currently preparing for their annual series of Howard Blake’s ‘The Snowman’ City Hall concerts in December.
Under the leadership of Tomás the CYO has gone from strength to strength, and currently has more than 140 members aged between 14 and 19. Under his direction the CYO has developed, evolved and adapted to suit the increasing and varied performance opportunities that are available to young musicians. Tomás has led numerous ambitious projects with the orchestra including performances in the National Concert Hall, live radio broadcasts on RTE, recordings and benefit concerts and concert tours with the orchestra to Italy, the Czech Republic and Scotland.
Tomás has conducted CYO concerts in City Hall since 1988 including CYO’s 30th, 40th, 50th and 60th anniversary concerts. These concerts are signature events in the cultural calendar of the City and Tomás has prepared the orchestra to play with prominent musicians and West End stars such as Sir James Galway, Altan, Colm Wilkinson, Michael Ball, Cillian Donnelly, Rebecca Storm, Cian Ducrot, Hayley Westenra, Sofia Escobar, Mike Sterling, Michael McCarthy, Mary Hegarty, Cara O’Sullivan and Majella Cullagh to name but a few.
In 2002 CYO were invited for the first time to perform a series of concerts at the European Festival of Youth Orchestras in Florence Italy. This festival was founded in 1999 with the mission to provide opportunities for young musicians to play in a unique festival in stunning Italian outdoor locations. Since 2002 Tomás has organised five concert tours to Italy to participate in this most prestigious festival. The orchestra has performed “The Brendan Voyage” on numerous occasions with Flaithrí Neff on Uilleann Pipes and most recently with piper Shane Keating. The most recent concert tour was in July 2023 when the orchestra of 144 musicians aged between 14 and 19 travelled to Italy for an unforgettable experience there. CYO performed in Montecatini and Volterra and completed a final Italian performance in the festival’s main venue in Loggia dei Lanzi, a beautiful open space on Piazza della Signoria, one of the main squares in Florence city centre. On each of the five concert tours, CYO took its place among other international youth orchestras in Italy and brought a unique Irish orchestral programme to life for the enjoyment of the audience at the festival.
Tomás was one of the founders of the Junior Cork Youth Orchestra (JCYO) in 1991 as a development orchestra to act as an academy to ensure that young musicians in their early years of ensemble playing, were given the essential music education and full orchestra experience they needed to progress to CYO and contribute to the exceptionally high standard of performance expected of musicians in CYO. Tomas’ wife Terry has been the only conductor of CYO for 33 years since its foundation.
Community Engagement
CYO is a truly distinctive, community-focused organisation proudly standing as Ireland’s oldest and largest youth orchestra. Since 1958, CYO has played a vital role in the social and cultural landscape of Cork. Tomás has worked tirelessly to nurture sponsorship for CYO events and projects, both locally in Cork and nationally and CYO is a registered charity. This work is to ensure that the CYO can be sustainable, and the cost of membership is kept to a minimum to ensure the widest possible access to CYO for talented musicians. CYO runs on a completely voluntary basis by interested musicians and parents.
CYO has raised significant funds through benefit concerts to support the work of charities such as Marymount Hospice, Enable Ireland, St Vincent de Paul and Special Olympics Ireland among others. The most recent benefit concert was in June 2023 when CYO played to a sold-out City Hall to raise money for Cork Penny Dinners. These projects have provided the musicians with a unique opportunity to present wide-ranging and ambitious programmes and repertoires across musical genres while also signalling the social justice ambitions of the orchestra to contribute in a positive way to their community.
Tomás is also a role model for climate action and is conscious that in CYO he is nurturing young musicians from the generation that will be tasked with dealing with the damaging consequences of climate change. For this reason, he founded the “Trees for Change” project in 2019 with the goal to reduce the carbon footprint of Cork Youth Orchestra and they planted 1,000 native Irish trees in Tramore Valley Walk. This project was supported by the members of CYO and their families as well as Cork City Council.
Tomás is the curator of the CYO public image, and he enacts this role with integrity and care. He ensures that all CYO achievements are celebrated and communicated to as large an audience as possible and this work sustains and promotes the orchestra and preserves the high standing and status of CYO in Cork music and cultural circles.
Impact on young people and working with young people
Tomás has been central to achieving the overall mission of CYO to provide memorable and joyful experiences to Cork’s young musicians. The growth and development of youth orchestras requires talented, enthusiastic, visionary individuals who give generously of their time and talent to encourage and support young people in their social, personal and musical development. Tomás’ work in this area is truly exceptional. All through his life Tomás has been an inspiring educator, an advocate for and a mentor to young musicians. He has motivated, taught, supported and nurtured young musicians in many ways throughout his long association with young musicians as a teacher and as conductor and musical director of CYO. He has created opportunities for young people to understand how to participate as musicians in an orchestra and this has allowed the talent of so many musicians to flourish throughout their teenage years into early adulthood. Many professional musicians will cite Tomás as a formative influence on their lives as musicians. However, for those young people who do not become professional musicians, JCYO and CYO is an important experience of being in an orchestra. This means that the world of rehearsals, performances, concert tours, fun and friendship, opened to them by Tomás, eventually becomes part of the landscape of happy memories and youth. This is the gift that Tomás has given to young people in over four decades of dedicated service to youth orchestra in Cork.
Conclusion
Today, we salute and acknowledge Tomás as a key proponent of community engagement, through his unwavering commitment for nearly 40 years to the Cork Youth Orchestra and the wider cultural agenda of Cork’s young musicians, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Tomás, through your outstanding contribution to music and musical education, you have opened opportunities for so many young people and we are immensely grateful to you and proud of what you have achieved. Your contribution to community and youth and what you represent is important to us and the values of University College Cork.
We are very honoured to present you today for the award of Honorary Doctor of Music.
Praehonorabilis Cancellarie, totaque Universitas! Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus in Musica, idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae