Episode 3 – Series Finale
It’s coming up to the end of the academic year and all of the performers have to step up to the plate. For Daire and Ríona it’s time for Feis, while the third level vocal students finally have their opera performance.
At 12 years of age, Ríona Scahill is preparing to compete in the 14-17 years old competition at the prestigious Feis competition. Her teacher Dr. Therese Fahy knows that this is a huge challenge but still expects the absolute best from her. Daire, 9, is also preparing to compete in the Under 12’s Feis competition. Coming from a family of five children, who all play instruments, it can be hard to keep you focus, but Daire is determined to get his piece right. Rachael has a performance in a lunchtime concert and is hoping to eventually conquer her nerves. While Anastasia, who deals with severe performance anxiety, has to tackle her lead role in the Opera. We meet Rafael, 16, a percussionist, who fell in love with the drums at the age of 3 when he first heard Phil Collins play. Rafael says that percussion is a lonely instrument and there are not many percussion students in his academy. To his disappointment, it is cancelled as a category in this year’s Feis. Undeterred, he is determined to continue practising his pieces until he is asked to step up to be part of the Junior Academy’s Symphony Orchestra and suddenly has a new goal to work towards.
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Face The Music is an exciting new 3-part observational documentary series from Animo TV that follows the students and teachers of The Royal Irish Academy of Music during a pivotal year in its 175- year history.
We join director, Deborah Kelleher at the start of the new academic year as she deals with significant delays to a 25million euro building project that has already experienced significant overruns due to the pandemic and the rising costs of building materials.
Undeterred, Deborah knows as the leader of this internationally renowned institution that that the show must go on.
Throughout this 3-part series we meet the students and teachers that dedicate their lives to pursuit of excellence in music. If classical music seemed elitist in the past, Deborah is doing her utmost to break down barriers and make it accessible to everybody. However, this is still a world that strives for perfection and the demands on students are significant.
As Deborah says, “ You have to audition to get in here.”
