Gina Maria Mc Guinness lives in Cois Fharraige with her husband and young children, regularly travelling to Dublin and further afield for work. As the classical violinist prepares to perform in Galway’s Midwinter Festival, she tells JUDY MURPHY about the joy she’s found in her adopted home.

Being hugely talented in any one area can be an advantage for a young person in that it offers a defined route towards a particular career, where the person can shine.

The downside is that it can cut off other options.

That’s something classical violinist Gina Maria Mc Guinness muses on as she discusses the many years she spent learning music at home and abroad, and working as a freelancer in a very competitive field.

Now living in Conamara, she grew up in South Dublin where her parents were doctors – and she sometimes regrets that she didn’t pursue medicine too.

Not that anyone pushed her towards music, she says. Both her parents loved it and her mother in particular, was very knowledgeable about classical music, so it was nurtured, but never forced on their children.

“Apart from Katie and me, the rest of my siblings are accountants and solicitors,” she says with a laugh. Her sister Katie, a classical pianist, is now Vice Principal of Artistic Operations with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Gina Maria began playing violin aged three and a half, and was gifted, winning her first international competition, Young Musician of Tallinn, in Estonia, aged eight.

She studied in Ireland, Germany, the US and Switzerland, learning her craft from some of the world’s best violin teachers, and performing in top venues and with leading chamber groups and orchestras at home and abroad.

Gina Maria spent 10 years in Switzerland, completing a Master’s in Lausanne before moving to Zurich. While there, she decided to explore other career options.

She got a job in the restaurant of Kennedy’s Irish Pub, where she met Cormac Mac Connell, originally from Bearna. Cormac, who managed the venue, is now her husband and the couple have three children.

Although “it was difficult at times”, Gina loved working in the food business. Mostly, she loved “the craic”, and the novelty and security of having a regular pay cheque to meet her monthly bills.

Ironically, she says, it was when she began working in Kennedy’s that her freelance career really took off, as she was called upon regularly by the Brussels Philharmonic to be its co-principal. Living in Zurich meant it was easy to commute.

Now based in Conamara and still freelancing, she faces a tougher commute for her various gigs. A member of the European Philharmonic of Switzerland (EPOS), she performs with the National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Irish National Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and the Berner Kammerorchester, among others, and she’s a member of the Gealán Quartet, which also tours regularly.

She, Cormac and their children, aged from six to one-and-a-half, live on the Conamara coast in an old farmhouse which they rent and which, on fine days, offers glorious views over Galway Bay.

Pictured: Gina Maria met her Galway husband Cormac Mac Connell, from Bearna, while working in Kennedy’s Irish Pub in Zurich, where he was the manager.