PHOTO: Judy Toomey with kids in a group class. Picture: Toomey Tunes.
Growing up in Ireland Judy Toomey was a shy kid. At age four she didn’t talk much. She didn’t look people in the eye. She didn’t play sport, draw, paint. She didn’t have a group of friends.
Now to talk to Judy is gregarious, friendly and passionate. It all started with a whistle made of tin. It’s actually called a penny whistle, it is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. She came across it because her seven year old sister had started learning how to play it with a teacher.
“It really just stirred my curiosity. It spoke to me” she told the Western Plains App “She was getting music tuition, so I got tutored”.
And that was then Judy Toomey found her voice. It wasn’t words. It was rhythm, melody. It was music…