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Certificate
Royal Irish Academy of Music, awarded to Kevin Merry, Pianoforte, First Grade examinations, 1959.
Royal Irish Academy of Music, awarded to Kevin Merry, Pianoforte, First Grade examinations, 1959; carries the signature of the Examiner Maestro A G Viani; T J Blackledge, Secretary and Catherine Byrne Senior Vice President of the RIAM.
The donor, Kevin Merry, was a music student of Ernest de Regge, professor of music at St Flannan’s College. Professor de Regge took Kevin for lessons on a Saturday and sometimes on a Wednesday, in part because he could see Kevin had potential. Kevin remembers that a lot music books, with the music of Chopin and Mozart for example, were in German. Kevin had a time schedule with dates and times that he practised to be filled out by parents. This was his first certificate, but Professor de Regge felt he was good enough to skip grade 2 and move to grade three.
In tonic sol-fa, de Regge always pronounced ‘so’ as ‘sol’. When the examiner heard Kevin using the ‘sol’, he asked if the Kevin’s teacher was Ernest de Regge. When he heard he was, he told Kevin that he had heard enough and he closed the the piano. Kevin passed with First Honours.
Kevin was very friendly with the daughters of Ernest de Regge as children and they remain friends to this day.
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