Musical Directors

Tomás McCarthy studied violin with Florence Pedder and Michael McNamara, trombone with Billy McCarthy and viola with John Vallery in the Cork School of Music. He also undertook European Suzuki Association teacher training with Philippa Lees. Tomás began conducting in 1981 and has since specialized in conducting young instrumentalists in the Cork School of Music, the Cork Youth Orchestra, and at orchestral courses in Dublin and Galway.

Tomás teaches at Orchestral Workshops in Scotland on a regular basis. He has also been a guest conductor of the Cork Symphony Orchestra. Tomás is involved nationally in many Suzuki workshops and community music schemes. As a violist he has played with the R.T.E. Orchestras and is a founder member of the Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra and Cork Chamber Orchestra. He is a Lecturer and Conductor at the Cork School of Music where he teaches viola and violin. Tomas holds an M.A. in conducting. Tomas has been Conductor / Musical Director of CYO since 1998 but has conducted the orchestra on many previous occasions since 1985.

Tomás has been associated with CYO since 1976 and has been part of the management team for the last 22 years. He is currently a director of the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras. Tomás conducted CYO in two, live full-length R.T.E. radio broadcasts hosted by Marian Finucane and John Creedon on their Christmas Shows. In July 2002 and 2007 Tomás conducted the CYO at the European International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Italy featuring the ’Brendan Voyage’ with soloist Flaithri Neff, and toured with CYO to the Czech Republic with soloist Mark O'Keeffe, principal trumpet B.B.C. Scottish Symphony Orchestra in July 2004. In 2005, Tomás was instrumental in inviting Sir James Galway to perform in Cork with the CYO during the 'Cork 2005' festivities.

Terry McCarthy has been the Conductor of the Junior Cork Youth Orchestra since its foundation in 1991. Over the eighteen years of conducting the Orchestra, she has brought it from an 18-piece 'training' orchestra to one now capable of national performances.

Terry’s interest in student orchestras began at an early age when she founded the school orchestra while still in St. Aloysius' Secondary School, Cork. She conducted and arranged music for this orchestra from 1984 until she left University College Cork. Since 2000, Terry has also been the conductor of the Dundanion Singers in Blackrock. With the choir, she has organised Tours to Edinburgh and Vienna.

Terry is a graduate of UCC and the Cork School of Music where she taught musicianship for many years until she became a teacher with the Cork City Vocational Educational Committee. Terry was conferred with an M.A. in Conducting in 2005. Terry, who is now entering her fifteenth year of examining for the Department of Education, is also an examiner for the Royal Irish Academy of Music and adjudicates regularly at Feiseanna. Terry is also an accomplished pianist and accompanist. As an accompanist, she has performed on many CD Recordings and RTE Broadcasts. She studied piano originally with Aideen Dynan and later with Bridget Doolan in the Cork School of Music. As a performer, Terry is a former winner of the Concerto Competition and Prizewinners' Competition at Feis Maitiú where she also spent some years as an official accompanist. Terry also plays Percussion and Double Bass.

Terry has been involved in CYO since 1986, first as an orchestral member and member of the Promotions Committee, then as founder conductor, and in the last nine years as Executive member and Director. Under Terry’s direction, the JCYO has performed three times in the National Concert Hall, 2002, 2004, and 2008 as part of the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras, and also travelled to Galway (2003) and Tipperary, (2005).