It may be hard work, but it's good fun too

Two Dutch masters will give tuition to musical scholars from around the country in Dublin this week. As part of the Young European Strings scholarship programme for violin and viola, 20 students aged between nine and 15 will study under Professor Coosje Wijzenbeek, of the Sweelinck Music Conservatory in Amsterdam and Professor Ronald Masin, originally from Rotterdam and now with the Dublin Institute of Technology.

They will also learn from Hungarian violinist Maria Kelemen, who is director of Young European Strings, and Brian McKay who divides his time between conducting, chamber music and vocal coaching in Dublin.

"It will be hard work but good fun as well," says one of the participants, Roisin Walters, 9, from Rathfarnham, Dublin. "I'd love to be a violinist." The talented 20 from places such as Carrigaline and Bishopstown in Cork to Templeogue and Clontarf in Dublin have been selected from over 100 candidates through a series of auditions in Dublin and Amsterdam earlier this year. The group also includes students from Wicklow and Louth, as well as four students from Switzerland and the Netherlands.

The programme will run all week at St Columba College in Rathfarnham, Dublin. It will involve a week of expert tuition. The master classes will conclude with a lunchtime performance at a concert in the John Field Room of the National Concert Hall next Friday.

The selected students from Dublin are: Clare Carroll and Ruth Gibson, Templeogue; Sinead Finegan and Roisin Walters, Rathfarnham; Sorcha Moloney, Clondalkin; Patricia Sheridan, Clontarf; Mary Deane, Terenure; Emer Kinsella, Malahide; Gina McGuinness, Ballsbridge and Michelle Picardo, Glasnevin.

From Cork they are Muireanne Dennehy, Ovens; Maeve Lynch and Fionnuala O'Sullivan, Bishopstown, and Aodhnait Fahy, Carrigaline. Lynda O'Connor is from Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, and Fiona Gilchrist is from Drogheda. Those from outside Ireland are Sanne Harnel, Rois in and Fiona-Aileen Storey-Kraege and Rosalinde Habermehl.