Cog Notes: Young pianist wins Fr Frank Maher Classical Music Award

Eoin Fleming (17) a sixth- year student at St MacDara's Community College, Templeogue, has won the 2015 Fr Frank Maher Classical Music Award, Ireland's largest classical competition for secondary schools. Seven finalists competed at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, and Fleming played Chopin and Rachmaninoff on piano to scoop the top spot. He didn't lick it off the stones: Eoin's father, Seán, is principal bass trombone with the RTÉ NSO, and his mother, Anne, plays and teaches violin. He hopes to study at Shenandoah University in Virginia, where John O'Conor is professor, and if he gets a place his €3,000 prize will go towards fees. The six finalists were cellist Alexander Brychta, Kildare, flautist Clodagh Curran, Dublin; Caoime Glavin, Kerry on horn; violinist Aleksandra Malinowska, Meath, cellist Patrick Moriarty, Dublin and pianist Juliette Morrison, Louth.

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Young painters need to get their brushes ready if they plan to enter the Sightsavers Junior Painter of the Year Award, this year on the theme "Imagine 2030". The judges – visually impaired artist Pádraig Naughton and artist and educator Deirdre Rogers – have urged primary school students in Ireland to enter before the November 27th deadline, passing on their top painting tips (be creative, be expressive, don't be afraid to use plenty of colour, let your imagination run wild), to create an artwork showing how they want the world they live in to look in the year 2030. sightsavers.ie/juniorpainter

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Aviation at Institute of Technology Carlow continues to fly. The college has just joined forces with 10 international third-level aviation programmes to create a partnership of aviation institutions and universities. A memorandum of understanding has been signed for the Air Transport and Aeronautics Education and Research Association. IT Carlow is the only Irish member, alongside Zurich University of Applied Sciences; Vives University College in Belgium; Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon; Purdue University in the US; and Coventry University.