KEY SKILLS 2024 - REPLAY

NOW AVAILABLE for immediate viewing !

Devised by RIAM Professors Réamonn Keary and Lorna Horan, this immensely popular workshop for piano teachers examines all repertoire from the new RIAM 2025 Piano Albums, with performances and tips on how to approach the technical and musical challenges of all pieces.

The Key Skills 2024 - Replay option presents a recording of the Dublin live workshop (which took place on the 25th of August 2024 ), which will be edited and made available for online viewing, as soon as the finished product is available.

All Piano Album repertoire from the new 2025 piano albums for the Lower Grades (Elementary to Grade V) performed and discussed, as well as some selected alternative options for the Higher Grades, with a particular focus on the technical and musical details that can cause difficulty for the student.

All Key Skills 2024 - REPLAY registrants will receive a copy of the Key Skills handbook in the post (included in the fee) - please supply your EIRCODE.

The Handbook will contain annotated scores and teaching notes for all pieces from the new 2025 Piano Albums (Elementary - Grade V) as well as some selected pieces for Higher Grades from the Thematic Index.

Not included in this year's handbook will be the annotated scores and teaching notes for the 2023-2026 Higher Grades (Grades VI-VIII) pieces, as these were already included in the Keyskills 2022 and Keyskills 2023 handbook.

For those of you who wish to receive a printed copy of those 2023-2026 (Higher Grades) annotated scores - as a separate insert booklet to the handbook - please tick the "Insert Booklet with Annotated Scores and Teaching Notes for 2023 - 2026 Piano Albums (Higher Grades VI - VIII)" option in your order. (this will be charged at an additional €5).

The insert booklet (if included in your order) will be sent to you by post together with your Key Skills Handbook.

Topics covered will include

• Recognising and conveying the style and character of each piece

• Suggesting teaching and practice methods to overcome the potential challenges in each piece

• Adding the finishing touches that turn an Honours performance into a Distinction

• Approaching the big exam day itself

Réamonn Keary

Réamonn Keary was educated at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Trinity College Dublin, the National University of Ireland Maynooth and in Vienna as a private student of Prof Leonid Brumberg.

He is a Professor and former head of the Keyboard Faculty at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. He frequently gives lectures and workshops on the subject of piano teaching and learning; presenting, for example, the series Piano Keys on RTÉ lyricfm from 2003 to 2017 and the highly popular Key Skills series of workshops for teachers around the country every autumn. He regularly presents masterclasses and has been a guest teacher in Millikin University Illinois and Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna.

Réamonn is highly-regarded as a chamber musician and has performed and recorded with many of the country’s top instrumentalists.

He is closely associated with the RIAM’s Local Centre examination system, having served as the Chairman of the Senior Examiners for many years and annually recording the Local Centre Piano Albums. He is also much in demand as an adjudicator and was a jury member of the Dublin International Piano Competition in 2006 and 2009.

Lorna Horan 

Lorna Horan is chief examiner (music) for the RIAM Exam System. She is selector and editor of the Local Centre junior piano albums, and is on the selecting and editing panel for the senior piano albums and extended lists. Lorna has recorded all the junior and senior aural test samples for the Local Centre exams and is one of the Key Skills’ workshop leaders.

Lorna started her piano training in the Royal Irish Academy of music (RIAM) before progressing to the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. She later graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music and from the Vancouver Academy of Music. She holds a master’s from the RIAM under the tutelage of John O’Conor.