I started the violin when I was four years old... I haven't stopped playing since

Violinist Siún Milne features in this week's Person to Person column

Tell us about yourself:

I’m a violinist from Cork. I started the violin when I was four years old, learning the Suzuki Method with teacher Pat McCarthy, and I haven’t stopped playing since!

I work with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, so I spend a good part of my time touring around Scotland. Home is Cork though.

I was born into a musical family with dad playing the fiddle, mam on the piano and two older sisters playing violin and viola.

I grew up listening to a lot of bluegrass, Scottish trad and classical music, usually on cassette tapes in the car driving to and from the MTU School of Music in Cork.

Where were you born?

I was born in Cork.

Where do you live?

Kilmacsimon Quay, Cork. My boyfriend and I moved here last March, having found it impossible with the housing crisis to find anywhere to rent in Cork city. It’s a gorgeous place, so we were really lucky to get it in the end. The sea is only a cycle away and I love having my family living nearby.

Tell us about your family?

Mam and Dad and two sisters who are also musicians. Bláithín is a violin teacher who works with the ETB. Brother-in-law Karl is a musician/composer/producer. Triona plays the viola with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and her fiancé Paul Boyes is a bassoonist and world renowned Mozart specialist and conductor.

My dad’s parents came from Sligo but settled in Clonakilty. I wish I had met my grandfather who was a Sligo fiddle player. Mam is from Galbally, Limerick. I have great memories spending nearly every weekend in Galbally as youngsters, playing with all my cousins on my grandparents’ farm and learning that land in the ‘Golden Vale’ was the best in Ireland.

Best friend:

I am still good friends with my best friends from primary school and secondary school, who both live here in Cork.

I spent my late teens and twenties moving around a lot, living in France, London, Berlin and Vienna, and have met amazing people along the way who are really important to me, but it grounds me to have close friends in Cork who have known me for most of my life.

Your earliest childhood memory?

My earliest memory is listening to Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s album Will The Circle Be Unbroken in the car on the way down to Skibb’ for summer holidays. I still adore that album.

Person you most admire:

Yehudi Menuhin. As a teenager I listened to all the 20th century violin greats, particularly Menuhin, Oistrakh, Ginette Niveu and Heifetz. I was never mad about Menuhin’s playing, beautiful but quite shaky and rough (I didn’t realise that he was in his seventies when he recorded the majority of what I listened to). It’s only recently that I started reading all about his life and the humanity of the man. In 1991, he was awarded Israel’s Wolf Prize. 

In his acceptance speech in the Knesset, he highlighted the suffering of Palestinians and the denial of their basic human dignity, which I thought was quite a brave thing to do.

Your favourite TV programme:

Fleabag. I’m a big fan of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and I also really fancied the priest.

Best holiday:

We spent every summer in Tragumna, Skibbereen. We swam twice a day come rain, hail or shine. We were paid 10p a day to practise, after which we would march triumphantly down to the local shop and painstakingly pick out each hard-earned penny sweet, no doubt we were a pure nuisance to the shopkeeper.

Favourite radio programme:

Beo Ar Eigean on RTÉ 1. I’m trying to brush up on my Irish! I like John Creedon’s radio show, I’ll have it on if I’m driving home from a gig... it’s soothing! His early morning radio show was always on when we were getting up for school so I always associated him with a bit of dread and my Mam bursting into the room any minute to summon me out of bed. I like listening now that he’s on late at night, relaxed, winding down and knowing I don’t have to get up early and go to school ever again.

Favourite restaurant:

Monk’s Lane in Timoleague and Café Izz in Cork city.

Favourite book:

Shuggie Bain.

Best book you ever read:

The Master And His Emissary by Ian McGilchrist.

Last album you downloaded:

Mitzki, Dvorak Piano Quintet No.2, and Karl Nesbitt’s new album Return, which I love!

Your favourite song:

Anything by the Beatles

Person you would most like to see in concert:

Ella Fitzgerald or Janine Jansen in a recital with Beethoven.

Morning or night owl:

I would like to be both but I am unfortunately neither.

Your proudest moment:

Playing with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall at BBC Proms last summer. 

There was a crackling nervousness and excitement in the hall as it was the first time we had played to an audience since March, 2020. 

My parents were watching from Cork and that made me proud!

What would you like to see improved in your area?

I would love if I could hop on a train from Innishannon to anywhere in the country. My dad is a railway enthusiast. Seldom in a car journey does he not mention the Old West Cork Railway Line and Paddy the Horse, or point out all the old railways lines, stations and level crossings that connected towns and villages all over Cork. It used to bore me to tears but now that I’ve lived in other countries that rely on excellent rail infrastructure, I think we’re mad to be so dependent on the car!

What makes you happy?

Being in the sea with big waves. Listening to my boyfriend singing around the house... and arriving into Cork from wherever I have been travelling.

What are you up to at the moment?

Busy planning my wedding and also preparing for Ortús Festival 2022! Now in its 7th year, the Ortús Chamber Music Festival brings together top Irish and International musicians, building connections with musicians around the world. See http://ortusfestival.ie/