Piano will help Cliona reach for the stars

CLIONA FITZGERALD could barely reach the piano keys when she started showing signs of a rare musical ability.

That was at the age of four and such was her progress that her parents, Betty and Darragh, from Whitechurch, Blarney, enrolled her in Cork School of Music when she turned six.

Now, almost eight years later and under the tutelage of Susan Cap, Cliona is proving her worth, winning the coveted Lyric fm/Pianos Plus all-Ireland competition and, with it, the use of a top of the range Kawai piano worth 9,000.