Vourneen Ryan is a professional flautist, teacher and performance coach. She performs regularly with many of the major orchestras in Ireland and the UK including the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Wexford Festival Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Vourneen was invited to join the internationally-acclaimed Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004 where she held the position of Co-Principal Flute. Vourneen began her studies with Doris Keogh at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and continued her flute studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied under Edward Beckett, Philippa Davies, Sarah Newbold and Paul Edmund-Davies. Vourneen has given many recitals at home and abroad including chamber music recitals with Merchant Winds quintet, Fusion wind quintet, Gael Winds and the Oriel Trio. She performed on the critically acclaimed Louth Contemporary Music Society’s CD’s ‘A Place Between’ and ‘Path’. In addition to her performing career Vourneen completed a Masters degree in Sports, Exercise and Performance Psychology in 2015. Since then she has started up her own performance coaching consultancy, The School of Performance (www.theschoolofperformance.com)

Vourneen also delivers Career Development workshops to students at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and has delivered Mental Skills Training for Performance workshops to students at the University of Limerick and DKIT. Vourneen is currently a teacher of flute studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and utilises psychological skills training techniques to motivate and inspire her students. In 2017 Vourneen was invited to contribute to the Association of European Conservatoires SMS (Strengthening Music in Society) 4 year project and has recently been awarded an Amplify Research grant from the RIAM to devise and deliver a psychological skills teacher training programme for instrumental and vocal tutors called ‘Find your ‘Flow’ and Flourish!’