Robyn Avery
Waltons New School of Music Faculty
Guitar • Bass Guitar • Ukulele • Music Technology
Robyn is a musician and teacher with a deep love of self-expression through sound. Self-taught from a young age, she developed her ear and technique by learning guitar through careful listening and imitation, later extending her skills to bass, ukulele and digital music production. Robyn's music background is rich and diverse, having performed in bands since her teens across a wide range of genres, including pop, metal, punk, folk, country and electronic music. She later ventured into more experimental territory, composing soundtracks for short films and theatre, performing improvisational noise sets and working in electroacoustic music and soundscaping. While in college, she set up her own music school out of her home, teaching guitar and ukulele to students of all ages. She later received a Masters degree in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin, with her thesis focusing on Visual Music. Today, Robyn is a member of the Irish alternative rock group girlfriend, which has toured extensively around Ireland and the UK, playing sold-out headline shows in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, as well as lauded sets for Other Voices in both Dingle and Cardigan in Wales, Manchester Punk Festival and Fishstock in Bristol. She is also involved in a number of solo and group projects that regularly produce music for independent release. Robyn champions a DIY approach to music in her teaching, in which the ability of a musician to be fully self-sufficient is prioritised. 'Music, for me, is so endless in its possibilities that it really bothers me when I see people constantly finding reasons why they can't do certain things. One of the most beautiful aspects of music today is its accessibility. Nothing should be off limits. Everyone has the capacity to make something special. Something I've always been passionate about is showing students, friends and collaborators that they can do it all themselves. In other words, if you really want to do it, you can! Write, record, mix and release a song in a day – why not? This is perhaps the most important lesson I try to teach.'
a comprehensive music centre in the heart of Dublin.