Lifestyle – Since Anna Lardi moved from her native Switzerland to Ireland nearly 30 years ago, she’s left her mark on life here, mostly through her involvement with Music for Galway, which promotes classical music in the West. But before joining that group two decades ago, she worked first as a teacher and in a fledgling cheese shop, having convinced its owners that a Swiss person was perfect to sell their produce. Sheridan’s Cheesmongers went on to thrive. So too did Music for Galway which celebrates its 20th Midwinter Festival later this month. Anna tells JUDY MURPHY about her journey.

In the summer of 2022 Anna Lardi fulfilled a long-held wish to walk all the way from her adopted home of Galway to her birthplace in Switzerland – she did so without fuss, accompanied by friends from both countries for various legs of the journey.

It’s an example of the determination she brings to her day job as Executive Director of Music for Galway, a group that “wants people to experience the power of live classical music, even if it’s just once”, she explains. “If it’ s not for you, you can always walk away but you’ve tried it”.

Anna, whose determination is matched by a keen intelligence and great sense of fun, had been a teacher in Switzerland before moving to Galway in 1995. She began her working life here teaching German and Italian to adults and followed that with a couple of years in the fledgling Sheridan’s Cheese Shop, after persuading the owners she was the person they needed to help them succeed.

Then, through what she describes as “one of those serendipitous moments”, Anna ended up working with Music for Galway (MfG) and has been key to the organisation’s growth and success for the past 20 years.

Even as she’s on Christmas holidays in Switzerland, she’s keeping a watching eye on emails in case of any last-minute blips as MfG prepares for its 20th annual Mid-Winter Festival, Seasons, which takes place from January 20-22 in the Town Hall Theatre and the ballroom of the city’s Hardiman Hotel.

Seasons will bring leading musicians and singers from all over Europe to Galway for a three-day celebration of composers including Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Schubert.

Anna became a fan of Music for Galway soon after arriving here.

“I used to go to the odd concert,” she explains of her introduction to the organisation that’s done so much to broaden the appeal of classical music since its establishment in the early 1980s.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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