PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING OUR 2026 GUEST ADJUDICATORS
We are delighted to announce our Guest Adjudicators for the 2026 Waltons RTÉ lyric fm Music for Schools Competition Finalists Concert on Monday, 18 May 2026 in the National Concert Hall.
Aedín Gormley
Aedín has been working in radio for most of her life. She has a huge love of music and studied piano and theory at the College of Music in Dublin (now the TU Dublin Conservatoire). She first worked in Irish language broadcasting and then at RTÉ Radio 1, initially as a member of the Presentation Department and then as presenter of The Weekend on One. Aedín joined RTÉ lyric fm when the station was founded in 1999, and Movies and Musicals, her hugely popular show, has been there from the start. The show features a broad range of soundtracks from early classics, as well as contemporary scores. Aedín has interviewed a number of renowned actors and performers for it, including Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Mark Hamill, Colin Farrell, Colin Firth, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Blunt, Renée Zellweger, Elaine Stritch, Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. She also loves talking to composers, and over the years she has chatted with John Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Hans Zimmer, Alan Menken, Michael Giacchino, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. During her time on RTE lyric fm, she has also presented the award-winning arts programmes Artszone, My Tunes and Sunday Matinée. And she now presents Aedín in the Afternoon on Fridays, featuring an eclectic range of music and entertainment news. Aedín also loves collaborating with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, most recently, presenting two sold out Movies and Musicals Live concerts at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.
Paul Noonan
Paul is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist whose career has spanned more than three decades. Best known as the frontman of the celebrated Irish band Bell X1, Paul's musical evolution reflects his restless creativity, collaborative spirit and continual reinvention across genres and projects. Raised in Lucan, he developed an early love of music through his father’s extensive vinyl record collection, and he began writing songs as a teenager, inspired by such acts as Hothouse Flowers and U2. At Salesian College, he met Damien Rice, Dominic Phillips and Brian Crosby, forming an early group that evolved into the band Juniper in 1991. After Rice’s departure, the remaining members became Bell X1, with Paul as lead singer and songwriter. With his charismatic presence and lyrical sensitivity at the helm, Bell X1 explored everything from vibrant indie rock to tender, introspective balladry.
Albums such as Neither Am I, Music in Mouth, Flock, and Arms helped define the band’s rich, experimental catalogue. Although his core work remained with Bell X1, Paul has long embraced collaboration and exploration outside the band. He has contributed percussion, vocals and songwriting to projects by Gemma Hayes, the Frames and others, and in 2006 he appeared on the popular charity album The Cake Sale. In 2011, he launched his first major solo endeavour, Printer Clips, a project built around duets with a range of acclaimed singers. Released in 2014, the Printer Clips album featured collaborations with artists such as Joan as Policewoman, Martha Wainwright and Lisa Hannigan, showcasing Paul’s versatility and his ability to create intimate, emotionally resonant music outside Bell X1’s framework. His creative curiosity has also led him to work in music therapy, where he applies his craft in deeply human contexts – supporting older adults living with dementia, people with disorders of consciousness and children in areas of social disadvantage. He has also curated large scale cultural projects, including Starboard Home and Imagining Ireland, presenting new and original Irish music with collaborators reflecting Ireland’s diverse creative landscape. In 2025, Paul returned to collaborate with his old friend Brian Crosby under a new name – Pilgrims. This project presents a reflective, intimate musical world anchored in piano, voice and atmospheric songcraft.
The Music for Schools Competition
Since the Music for Schools Competition was founded in 2011, this non-profit nationwide event has been supporting young musicians and music education in Irish schools; celebrating music as a cornerstone of Irish education; and promoting confidence, creativity and collaboration from an early age. The Competition is open to all primary and post primary schools in the Republic of Ireland, and hundreds of schools from all 26 counties have participated in previous years.
The Competition's open nature offers schools the opportunity to think and work creatively in any genre (or genres) of music and with any combination of students, developing an original musical project that has learning potential at every stage of the process.
Each year’s Competition culminates in a gala Finalists Concert in the National Concert Hall, in which twelve Finalist school music groups (six primary and six post-primary) perform before their peers and two distinguished adjudicators, as well as one of the Competition’s co-directors. The entire concert is streamed live by RTÉ lyric fm and can be watched from anywhere in Ireland or around the world.
Past Finalist Concert adjudicators include David Brophy, Zoë Conway, Ellen Cranitch, Julie Feeney, Aedín Gormley, Evelyn Grant, Lisa Hannigan, Deborah Kelleher, Dónal Lunny, Gwen Moore, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and Bill Whelan.
At the end of the Finalists Concert, the adjudicators announce six winning groups (three primary and three post-primary), which receive trophies and awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments and equipment from Waltons Music Ireland for their schools.
2026 Calendar
- Friday, 20 March 2026, 5 pm | Entry deadline
- Wednesday, 15 April | Finalists announced on RTÉ lyric fm
- Monday, 18 May, 1pm | Finalists Concert (watch the live stream on www.rte.ie/lyricfm)
For more information, please contact: Aideen Walton awalton@newschool.ie