Vanessa has worked with the Junior String section of DYO since the foundation of the orchestra in 1982. She has taken great delight in watching the standards rise from year to year from the beginning years (when you could come along and join in on a Sunday afternoon if you could play your open strings! ) to today when the individual standard of many players in the Junior group is quite stunning. Every year half the orchestra is completely new and the challenge of introducing that number of new players to the pleasures and disciplines of orchestral playing remains as exciting and rewarding as it has ever been as they progress and learn to play together as a group.
Vanessa is a full-time member of the Music staff at Alexandra College where she teaches violin, viola and chamber music and directs three orchestras (Junior School, College Orchestra and Senior Chamber Orchestra). She also teaches at home.
Vanessa currently leads the viola section of the Hibernian Orchestra. In June 2008 she completed an MA in performance with the Delmaine String Quartet at the Cork School of Music where she studied with the RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet.
She has two children working as professional musicians (both former members of DYO) and four grandchildren.