A former music pupil of the late Duchess of Kent has told how her ‘quiet dedication’ to supporting young musicians from deprived backgrounds was the inspiration behind his own success.
Speaking ahead of the Duchess’s funeral at Westminster Cathedral on Tuesday, pianist and singer Adam O’Shea said her mentoring was key for his own progression in music.
He went on to study at the country’s most prestigious music colleges, had a private meeting with the late Queen, sang a duet with soprano Danielle de Niese and performed in a cabaret at Glastonbury.
Mr O’Shea first met the Duchess as a teenager in 2009 when he won a competition run by her music charity Future Talent, using the prize money to pay his fees at the world famous Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester.
At the end of his performance, the Duchess, who insisted on being called Katharine, sat down next to the astonished 14-year-old and played a piano duet with him.
Now aged 32 and a music teacher himself, Mr O’Shea said his family background as the child of a single mother in Rochdale, one of the most deprived towns in the country, would have gone against him if not for the Duchess’s support.
He said: ‘I am one of many she has helped and inspired. I had lots of mentoring from her on the piano but also on how to conduct yourself when performing or in public.
‘She gave so many of us not just opportunity, but belief in our music, our futures and ourselves.
Adam O’Shea (second left) said the late Duchess of Kent’s ‘quiet dedication’ to supporting young musicians from deprived backgrounds was the inspiration behind his own success
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent is seen being taken from Kensington Palace to Westminster Cathedral
Family members were seen arriving at Westminster Cathedral in a minibus ahead of Tuesday’s funeral
‘She quietly dedicated herself to a cause that changed lives and supported young musicians especially those from low-income backgrounds who might otherwise have gone unheard.’
Astonishingly for a senior member of the Royal Family, the Duchess managed to dedicate well over a decade of her life to working incognito as a music teacher at a primary school in an underprivileged area of Hull.
The Yorkshire-born Duchess had offered to teach at the school after making a visit there in 1996 and went on to support and mentor children for 14 years.
More details of her time as plain ‘Mrs Kent’ at Wansbeck Primary School emerged after her death of September 4 at the age of 92.
Each week, the Duchess would apparently make the 400-mile round trip to Hull to teach music and singing with only the headteacher aware of her true identity.
‘I was just known as Mrs Kent,’ she later revealed. ‘The parents didn’t know, and the pupils didn’t know. No one ever noticed. There was no publicity about it at all – it just seemed to work.’
She went on to found Future Talent to inspire and help musical children from disadvantaged backgrounds
Mr O’Shea added: ‘She insisted on being called Katharine and told me off if I referred to her Royal titles.
The Duke of Kent is now the oldest living member of the Royal Family following the death of his wife
The coffin left Kensington Palace at 4.45pm on Monday to make the 15-minute journey to Westminster Cathedral, flanked by a police escort
The Duchess of Kent died on September 4 at the age of 92 (pictured ahead of a State Banquet in 1991)
‘She was so down to earth and gave me a philosophy I have carried forward into my professional life.
‘I remember saying to me, like, the greatest gift you can give someone is the power to express themselves and music is the greatest catalyst for that. And that was her that was everything that motivated her.’
The funeral for the Duchess, who married into the Royal Family in 1961, will be the first Catholic funeral for a member of the Royal Family in modern history. The King, Queen and senior royals will be in attendance.
