A spotlight on: Aidan Gray

In this episode of the Music Generation Longford podcast, we shine a spotlight on Longford musician Aidan Gray. Aidan is an incredibly accomplished musician who started playing bass guitar at the age of 15. Since then, his band Reprisal had nationwide success with slots at numerous gigs and festivals including Electric Picnic. They also received a lot of radio play and had quite a loyal fanbase. He went through the Longford School of Rock as a student and went on to become a teacher there and now works as a Music Educator with Music Generation Longford. Not only that, but he has just qualified with a BA in Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance from DCU. Aidan is an example of a Longford musician that young people can really aspire to. 

Our spotlight episodes were inspired by ‘Possible Selves in Music’, which is the outcome of a research partnership between Music Generation and St Patrick’s College Drumcondra (DCU), which took place from 2013 to 2015.

During that time, the researches undertook in-depth, in-the-field engagement with the partnerships involved in Music Generation at local level. Their research sought to investigate how the programme is enabling thousands of children and young people to reach their potential and experience transformation through music.

The title of the research comes from the idea that when children and young people connect with music, they begin to imagine their possible future self and this leads to real transformation in their self-development.

Over the course of the podcast, we will shine a spotlight on a variety of Longford musicians who are an inspiration and true example of 'possible future selves'.