SUMMER SCHOOL OF EARLY IRISH HARP
ITE O’DONOVAN
Lecturer, Scoil na gCláirseach
Ite O’Donovan
Ite O’Donovan has had a rich and varied career in Dublin since 1975. A graduate of Carysfort College of Education, she began her teaching career in the primary school sector and was appointed vice-principal when only 24 years of age. She continued her musical studies at Trinity College Dublin as an external student and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1981.
In March 1982, she made history by being the first woman to be appointed director of the Palestrina Choir at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. Her increasing passion for music led her to resign from her full-time post as vice-principal in 1984 and take up part-time teaching at Dublin’s College of Music where she was appointed lecturer in the School of Musicianship in 1988.
She continued her academic studies graduating from The Queen’s University, Belfast with a Master’s Degree in Renaissance Music in 1986.
Having resigned from her post as Director of the Palestrina Choir in December 1995, Ite launched her new choir company—Dublin Choral Foundation—in September 1996 and established two new choirs, The Lassus Scholars and Piccolo Lasso, named after Orlande de Lassus, who, like Palestrina, died in 1594. For the past eighteen years these choirs have sought to achieve the richness of the cathedral choral tradition in a changing, secular society.
Throughout these years Ite O’Donovan’s interest in musicology motivated her to explore the Irish Periodical Literature in search of long-forgotten articles which would help shed light on the progress of music in Ireland. She recently completed her PhD dissertation—Music in Irish Periodical Literature 1770-1970—at UCD, under the supervision of Dr. Harry White.