Bringing music with soul to the masses

A classically trained pianist, who has a reputation for playing music both for church and musical society audiences, comes from a family with a history of music which goes back to her great-grandfather's day of running a legendary dancehall at Kielty. Heather Shine follows on successfully with a tradition of playing music, which is loved by many. Heather, who is a primary teacher in Ballybay NS, is the fourth generation of the famous music family from Kielty. Her great-grandfather, Pat Shine started the dance hall in Kielty, and ran the dances there from the 1920s to the mid-1950s. Her granduncle, Owen Shine, who was also a schoolteacher who taught at Ballybay NS, played fiddle and accordion on Radio Eireann in the 1940s. Heather's grandfather Pat, who played alto-sax was the leader of the family band, and was the father of international recording star, Brendan Shine (Heather's uncle). Heather's grandaunt was Marcie Shine, a woman who played piano accordion at Maypole dances in the Hill of Berries, Summerhill and Kielty in the 1950s. Heather is the daughter of Padraig and Bertha Shine. Heather's eldest brother, Alan is an architect in Dublin, and her younger brother, Leslie sells jewellery on a stall in Grafton Street, Dublin. "My mum comes from Dublin and sings and is into opera, and has a great voice, but her mum played the concertina," said Heather. "My dad is into Jazz music, and would play accordion, and piano, and a bit of sax as well, and of course I couldn't avoid the music, because it was everywhere. I would often hear Brendan rehearsing at my granny's house across the field." Heather seemed to be born to play music, and grew up beside the old dancehall, in a house of music, and her first instrument was tin whistle, and then she learned the piano with Etna Murray at St Joseph's College, Summerhill, when Heather was in the primary school. Heather got involved in school shows in Summerhill, such as playing tin whistle and singing in the Féile Ceoil and as a young girl played the organ in Drum Church, when Fr Thomas Beirne was PP. Following her school days, she studied to be a primary school teacher in Carysfort College, alongside furthering her music studies at the Royal Irish Academy, in Westland Row under the tutelage of Deirdre Doyle. When she returned to Athlone after her exams, Heather got involved in the then hugely popular Tops of the Town shows, playing piano with the Drum Variety Group, after being encouraged by her aunt, Annette Durney. Heather also got involved in Tops for Ericsson. Heather's own music likes involve Queen, Elton John, Phil Collins, and classical stuff, but her real love is that of gospel music, some of which she has brought into her church music group, Anam. Fr PJ Hughes set up 'Anam' to play music at the six o'clock Sunday night mass in St Mary's Church, and he invited Heather to play piano with the group, and she has remained with them since its inception six years ago. Heather and Anam played in Vienna, Austria, at a music festival at Christmas 2006. In her time, Heather was also organist with St Peter's School choir, and worked alongside Sr Bernard with the primary school girls in Ss Peter's and Paul's Church. As far back as the late 1980s, Heather has been accompanist and chorus mistress with the Athlone Musical Society shows and her first show was 'George M'. "I was approached at the time to play in the musicals, and it was a time I was teaching at St Peter's school, and 'George M' was a challenging show to play for, and it was all kind of mad for me," said Heather laughing. "But I have a thing for musical theatre, and I've seen all the major ones in London, like 'Phantom' and 'Wicked' and 'We Will Rock You'. Many of them are so brilliant; I would see favourites more than once." As a child growing up in Athlone, she was also a fan of Athlone musicals, which had such local stars as Sadie Flanagan and Austin Gaffney. Heather has worked on many local critically acclaimed musicals such as 'Jesus Christ Superstar' in 2003, and 'Chess' in 2006, and the one she found most fun to do - 'Hot Mikado' in 2005. She found Sweeny Todd in 2008 her most musically challenging show to work on to date. Heather is married to local furniture store businessman Patrick Reddington, who runs the family store on the Dublin Road, Athlone. "I'm classically trained but I'm not the kind of person who just plays something by ear, and it's just a different style, some are a busker, some are a reader, and I'm a strict reader," she said. "I dip in and out of Lyric FM and listen to music when I'm in the car, but I also have a lot of dogs at home that keep myself and Patrick busy." Heather's main hobby outside of her music life is her dogs and she owns seven dogs, which include a couple of mongrels and a Labrador and a German shepherd, and most of them were rescued after having been abandoned by their previous owners. "I have an appreciation of art, and I do love my fashion," she laughed. "But I'm most passionate about my animals. Other than that, fashion and music are my main things. My husband, Patrick, is a great supporter to me in my music and my work. My late uncle, Owen Shine was a great inspiration to me when I was young and beginning to learn the piano, and he is sadly missed by all our family." When September comes, Heather will be back teaching at Ballybay NS and working with Anam, and also she will be back working on the new Athlone musical, 'The New Pirates'. She has worked on the show twice before in Athlone since the 1980s. She also worked on 'Pirates' with Athenry Musical Society. Heather has also worked for a number of other societies including Castlerea's, where she did a show called 'Honk', which is a musical version of 'The Ugly Duckling'. She worked with Loughrea Musical Society on the show, 'Man of La Mancha', and with Athlone Community College for several shows such as 'Fiddler on the Roof', 'Guys and Dolls' and Calamity Jane'. Heather was also involved in organising and accompanying the children who participated in the National Children's Choir concert, which was held in June 2009 in the John McCormack Hall in Athlone IT. Through drinking up to twenty cups of tea a day, Heather works her way through her music, with her great sense of humour, and is currently enjoying a rest after a busy year with her schoolteaching, Anam, and her various musical societies. "We've been really busy since PJ (Fr PJ Hughes) left Anam to go to South America, and four of us Anita O'Connor, Kieran Kilduff and Patrice Coyle and myself now prepare music for the group," said Heather. "Anam also has an annual concert, which we do every November. But PJ started it all off, and sourced out everything, and was great for us all, and all we had to do was just turn up, and he'd have the work done for us." Anam has also recorded one CD, and is working on two other albums, and they have a core group of over 20 singers and musicians. "I'm a big fan of gospel music, and I'm very fond of Tom Kenzia's music, and I enjoyed the couple of workshops that he did for us," she said. "I would love to go more into gospel, if I get the opportunity to do so. But the Anam people are great, and do it all voluntarily and have huge commitment. In fact, all the music people I work with are a great inspiration, because they give their time selflessly for the entertainment of others."