Doris Keogh:DORIS KEOGH, who has died aged 90, was former professor of flute and recorder at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), and also taught at Dublin Institute of Technology. She was also director of the Capriol Consort.
An extraordinarily committed teacher, she was popular with students.
Jazz flautist Brian Dunning two years ago said in an interview: “Doris Keogh was the type of teacher who would never look at the clock. So if the next pupil did not show up she would continue teaching me until someone did show.
“She would also bring pupils together to play chamber music at her home. If you came to a lesson and played well, she would be even happier than you were.
“She had a great talent for instilling enthusiasm in her pupils. We all loved her.”
Canadian student Seán Kennedy spoke in similar vein in 1981 when he told this newspaper of the many doors she had opened for him: “I owe so much to that woman.”
Born in Dublin in 1922, she was the daughter of Victor-Louis Cleary, a professional flautist, and his wife Elizabeth (née Hughes). When she was seven her mother died, and she moved to Howth to live with her maternal grandparents. Four years later she rejoined her father at the family home on Adelaide Road.
There he taught her the rudiments of music to prepare her for formal studies under Thomas Brown. She also had lessons at the Municipal School of Music with Col Frederick Sauerzweig.
In addition to learning to play the flute, she studied harmony with Dr JJ O’Reilly and piano with Josephine Reidy at the Municipal School of Music.
Ballet lessons at the Abbey School of Ballet complemented her flute studies, particularly with regard to posture and rhythm.
It was at the Municipal School of Music that she met her husband Val Keogh, a percussionist, whom she married in 1947.
She first performed in public at the age of 14, when she gave a recital, accompanied by her aunt Sylvia Dormer, at the Mariner’s Church, Dún Laoghaire.
The programme included music by Handel and Mozart, and admission was five shillings.
In another early performance, at the Theatre Royal, she played a piccolo solo accompanied by the Jimmy Campbell orchestra. In later years she found work as a musician in the Abbey and Lantern theatres, and in her early 20s was appointed as first flute with the Gaiety theatre orchestra.
In 1944 she made her debut with the Raidió Éireann orchestra, with which she regularly played thereafter. Unhappy that women players were paid less than men, she campaigned for equal pay.
In the 1950s she withdrew from orchestral work to concentrate on raising her family, but returned to freelance playing in the 1960s.
She began teaching at the RIAM in 1969 and retired in 1993.
However, she continued to be actively involved in music. She taught recorder on a part-time basis at the DIT conservatory of music and drama and continued to teach privately.
She also was the mainstay of the Capriol Consort, a group of young music students who performed Spanish, Italian and Irish music and dances of the Renaissance period in period costume. The troupe travelled many times to Italy.
Her house in Howth was open to students at weekends. Groups rehearsed on Saturdays, while Sundays were devoted to chamber music.
To broaden musical horizons, she organised master classes in Dublin by world-class musicians. These included flautists James Galway, Robert Dick and Stephen Preston as well as Pedro Meversdorf on the recorder.
In 1988 she received a Millennium Award in recognition of her contribution to musical life in Dublin, and in 1993 was awarded an honorary fellowship of the RIAM.
In 1992 a group of former students launched a trust fund in her honour.
It is administered by the Arts Council and funds are awarded biannually to enable a young Irish flute or recorder player to study overseas.
She will be fondly remembered by her family, former students and Dublin music aficionados.
Predeceased by her husband in 1995, she is survived by her daughters Miriam, Jackie and Gervaise, and sons Val and Stephen
Doris Rachel Keogh: born April 16th, 1922; died August 10th, 2012