Former London Rose Amy Gillen told David Hennessy about her upcoming show at Royal Albert Hall.
Rose of London 2023 and accomplished musician Amy Gillen is set for her Royal Albert Hall debut this month.
Amy, who plays many instruments but chiefly the flute, and the pianist Frasier Hickland will take to the Elgar Room stage to perform a wide-ranging repertoire, including music by Nino Rota, Herbert Hughes and Pablo de Sarasate.
The show will be in partnership with the Royal College of Music London and be part of the Classical Coffee Mornings series.
Amy Gillen, who represented London in Tralee in 2023, is an award-winning Irish flutist, multi-instrumentalist and teacher.
A graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music/Trinity College Dublin (First Class Honours) and the Royal College of Music London (Distinction), she was named the Irish Freemason’s Young Musician of the Year in 2018 and was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal by the then Prince Charles.
Amy has performed at renowned venues including Wigmore Hall, the V&A Museum, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, and for HRH King Charles at Windsor Castle.
She has also played with top orchestras such as the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.
Her debut album, Flute Chapters, was released in 2023.
Amy will be accompanied by Frasier Hickland, who is also a graduate of the Royal College of Music, London, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Are you looking forward to your Royal Albert Hall debut?
“Absolutely, we are extremely excited about this opportunity.
“It will be myself and my friend, Frasier Hickland.
“We actually met at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and we both studied then at the Royal College of Music in London.
“We used to hope that this opportunity would come up because the Royal College of Music overlooks the Royal Albert Hall, so it was always a big dream for both of us to one day perform at the Royal Albert Hall.
“We’re really looking forward to putting on this programme that we absolutely love of pieces that have focus on operatic music so they will all tell stories through the music.
“We’re hoping everyone’s going to enjoy it as much as we do.”
Amy played Phil Coulter’s The Town I Love So Well both at the London Rose Selection Ball in 2023 and then at the Dome in Tralee.
We just have to ask, Does that mean there’s no Town I Love So Well?
“Maybe for an encore,” Amy laughs. “Who knows?”
As you were just saying it means a lot to you personally to do the Royal Albert Hall but there is just something special about the venue, isn’t there?
“Oh, absolutely.
“It’s such an iconic venue and when you see how many incredible artists from all around the world have played there, it’s quite surreal that we’re getting the opportunity.
“Even when we were looking at the tickets on the website and our concert is profiled there alongside Gary Barlow, Annie Lennox, Dua Lipa’s just performed in Royal Albert Hall too so it’s just a really nice feeling and we’re looking forward to it.”
Let’s go all the way back to the beginning. When did you start with music? When did you know music was something you had a passion for?
“I knew I always wanted to play music.
“I remember a few years ago when we were cleaning out the attic in our old family home, I found a little sheet that I had written and it said, ‘I want to be a musician when I grow up’.
“So I never doubted that I wanted to do anything else but music.
“I think I was about six and my mum and dad had enrolled me in the Donegal School of Music to take recorder lessons, so I started recorder lessons first with Jim McDermott.
“Then I moved on to flute at the age of eight, that was thanks to a mentor called Sister Concepta.
“She was involved with music in Ballyshannon and music in Donegal at the time and has since sadly passed.
“She was an incredibly important figure in my life.
“She said (to my parents), ‘Amy needs to play the flute and this is the flute to get’ basically.
“And I haven’t looked back since.”
Amy would go on to learn piano. This was in addition to the violin she learned at primary school and the guitar she would teach herself making her quite the multi- instrumentalist.
“Then we got accepted into the Royal Irish Academy of Music for their music lessons.
“I started doing music lessons there on Saturday for piano, flute, music theory, orchestra and all of that, and it was thanks to my mam and dad that drove myself and my brother down to Dublin every Saturday from Donegal to have our music lessons.
“When I was there, I studied piano with the incredible John O’Connor.
“He’s a world renowned Irish pianist.
“I then went on to study for my undergrad of music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music which was a Trinity College Dublin accredited degree.
“I then went on to study at the Royal College of Music where I did my masters of music in classical and jazz flute and was also awarded the Tagore Gold Medal by King Charles.
“Since that I’ve also done a PGC at the University of Nottingham so that gives me another education qualification to teach and I’m hoping to pursue my studies now in music composition.
“I want to compose more music and have the creative time and space to do that.
“I used to release songs under my band’s name The Pearls on Velvet.
“We released two songs Be Mine and Game of Love in 2022 which were very well received but I’m actually working on writing my own songs now and producing them myself as well and doing all that for my second album.
“So on the songs that I’m working on now I play flute, piano, violin, guitar, sing, and I’m producing it all myself using logic pro.
“That’s what I’m passionate about now, to write my own original work and focus on composition because I’ve always had a passion for it.
“It’s very exciting to be working on all of that, to get the time to do that as well and continue my teaching alongside that as well.
“And performance work, of course.”
Who were your big inspirations and big influences?
“I’ve had a lot of different influences growing up from artists in a lot of different genres from classical music, jazz music, but one that’s just sticking out in my mind at the moment is actually Annie Lennox because I used to listen to her song Sweet Dreams.
“There was a picture that mam and dad have found recently of me playing the guitar.
“It was like a kid’s guitar at the time, having a little microphone and going around singing that song.
“I think she’s such an incredible artist, is so similar to the kind of genre that I’m passionate about as well.
“And also, of course, Sinéad O’Connor who has been a huge influence and icon growing up.
“I like to take influence from all of those artists and they’re particular artists that I’ve looked up to growing up.”
You spoke about Sinéad on the stage in Tralee. Come to think of it, she couldn’t have long passed at that time so it was very raw…
“It was because I think it was July 2023 when she passed.
“I was actually coming back from a Women’s Irish Network event in London and then I looked at my phone and the notification had come up that Sinéad O’Connor had passed.
“I just remember it being a poignant moment having come from an event celebrating Irish women in the UK and it was such a huge shock that an artist like her was gone so soon and so suddenly.
“What a talent.
“What she did for music and in her life, it was just an inspiration really.
“I think she was absolutely incredible.”
You mentioned playing for King Charles there and getting awarded a medal by him, what was that like?
“It was a huge moment for me to be awarded that medal.
“But prior to that, I had actually played for him at the grand opening of the Royal College of Music rebuilding development and it was a particularly special moment.
“I had just gotten back from Boston at the time because I’d gone over to finally get my new professional gold flute and the first time that I was playing on it was for him so I’ll always have that memory.
“I remember telling him about that when I had the opportunity. That event was in December.
“Then I met him again when he awarded me the Tajore Gold Medal in May, and he remembered, and asked me about the flute.
“With all the people that he’s meeting, he still remembered.
“That just really sticks out in my mind, that he remembered and he said he did enjoy the performance and he was hoping that I would play for him again at some point.
“Fingers crossed, you never know.”
You have also played for Prince Albert of Monaco..
“Actually myself and Frasier, we were both out in Monaco so we performed for Prince Albert of Monaco out there for an event with the Atlantic Youth trust.
“That was 2022, I think.
“That was incredible because I’d never been to Monaco.
“Neither of us had been to Monaco so it was really amazing to experience that and then to get the opportunity to play for Prince Albert as well.
“He was so kind too.”
Where does playing in the Dome in Tralee rank with your other musical achievements?
“Extremely highly because it was always a dream of mine to do that.
“I’ve said to you before about my Granny saying to me to go for the Rose of Tralee at some point, it felt like another full circle moment for me.
“It’s something that I’d always wanted to do and it’s something that I always look back on with just great fondness and memories, memories not only of the friends that I’ve made but also memories of family too and the connection that it brought between friends, family, community was something really special.”
Do you miss being London Rose?
“I’ll always look back on it fondly, definitely.
“Of course you’re going to miss it.
“It wouldn’t be normal to say you’re not going to miss having done something like that.
“But I’ll always know that I’ve done that and remember that, can look through the pictures.
“I always have that connection with them. I’ll have that for the rest of my life, so I’ll always be grateful for that opportunity.”
Amy has recently moved home to Donegal but isn’t losing her London connections.
“Even prior to and after the London Rose, I continued with my volunteer work as well.
“I actually worked as a volunteer with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Radio Station.
“They’re an independent charity radio station that are a completely voluntary and self-funded charity.
“The station manager there is the incomparable Peter Hillyard.
“We would visit the Edgar Horne ward at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital, talk to some patients, get some requests and then we would go up and do the show.
“I’ve presented a few shows.
“The one I was involved with was the Tuesday night request show and I’m going to continue my involvement with them here from Donegal.
“Yeah, I’ll still be involved with the charities because they were like a family for me as well.
“And I know they’re coming to Royal Albert Hall in January as well.
“So it’s not only thanks to the London Rose but my entire London community that have been such a big family for me during my time in London and still here in Ireland as well.
“Once you make those connections, they don’t really go away.”
I was joking about The Town I Love So Well before, but didn’t you actually meet Phil Coulter?
“He was performing in Harvey’s Point Hotel in Donegal.
“It must have been prior to the pandemic, 2019 and I think it must have been around Christmas time or November/ December time of that year.
“I think my brother got the tickets for us all.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll bring my book along with me’.
“This is a book that Phil Coulter had done for James Galway the flute player.
“James Galway had already signed it when I was in Switzerland for his master classes that he has there every summer.
“I said, ‘Sure I’ll try and bring along the book and if I have a chance, I’ll ask Phil Coulter to sign it as well’.
“I knew one of the journalists, Matt Britton.
“Matt knows Phil Coulter so he got me over to speak with him and I got him to sign my book and a picture was taken.
“It was an absolutely gorgeous evening.”
That song means a lot to you, doesn’t it? That’s why you chose it to play at the Dome and all…
“It does. It really does because it was after John Hume’s passing that I knew I wanted to honour his life in some way and his contribution to the peace process.
“I’d heard he loved to sing The Town I Love So Well and I thought, ‘Why not record that?’
“And I did in August 2020.
“I recorded myself playing flute and piano and put it up on Facebook and it seemed to do quite well.
“I just knew I needed to do that to honour him in some way.
“It’s just been a song that just holds such a special place in my heart.
“The lyrics are so poignant.
“I felt like I wanted to bring that to the Dome in Tralee as well and also for the bonus track of my debut album Flute Chapters as well.”
With the Royal Albert Hall gig and work on your second album, you have a lot on your plate but you are still teaching in addition to it all.
Teaching is obviously something you are also very passionate about..
“Oh, absolutely. It’s just something I get so much joy out of.
“Some of my students have done really well recently, got distinctions in their exams so I’m very, very happy with that.
“Yeah, just looking forward to all these concerts coming up.
“I’ve got a concert in Cork in late January. We’ve got a concert in Belfast as well 24 January just before we head to London for Royal Albert Hall so it could be a busy couple of months ahead.”
Amy Gillen and Frasier Hickland play a Classical Coffee Morning at Royal Albert Hall 9.15am on Sunday 26 January.
For tickets and more information, click here.
For more information about Amy, click here.
