Ita Beausang

Beausang was born in Cork and studied with Aloys Fleischmann at University College Cork, graduating as BMus (1956) and MA (1958) before she completed the first Irish PhD thesis in musicology on "Anglo-Irish Music, 1780–1830" (1962).[1] With some adaptations, this was the basis of her book Anglo-Irish Music, 1780–1830 (Cork University Press, 1966; published under her maiden name Ita Margaret Hogan).

From 1954 to 1960, she taught at the Cork School of Music. After her marriage and move to Dublin in 1960, she worked as a research assistant on the Royal Irish Academy's A New History of Ireland (Oxford University Press), again working with Fleischmann, during 1973–1974. In 1986, she was appointed lecturer in musicianship at the then College of Music (now the TU Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama) and served as acting director, 1995–1996. She retired in 2001 and has since played an active role in fostering music education in Ireland, serving on the advisory group for a feasibility study, undertaken by the organisation Music Network, on "A National System of Local Music Education Services" (2001–2003). She was also a member of the executive committee of the Feis Ceoil (2003–2009).

In 2010, Beausang was awarded Honorary Membership of the Society for Musicology in Ireland. She was also awarded Honorary Life Membership of the Society for Music Education in Ireland in 2014.

Under her maiden surname Hogan, Ita Beausang has published work on musical culture in late 18th and 19th-century Ireland, culminating in her volume Anglo-Irish Music, 1780–1830. For a long time, this study remained the only substantial text about Irish composers of a mainly Protestant background, including Charles Thomas Carter, Philip Cogan, Thomas Simpson Cooke, John Field, Michael Kelly, John Andrew Stevenson and others. The book "is recognised as a seminal text on the subject".[2] Barra Ó Seaghdha wrote in 2016 that "the book allows later readers and scholars to pick and choose the material that suits their own purposes, or to weave it into patterns of their own, regardless of the author's views".[3] Due to her expertise in the area, she became an Advisory Editor for the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (published 2013).

According to Kelly, "Beausang's academic career has been indelibly shaped by the thinking of her mentor Aloys Fleischmann; she has notably followed his example in viewing teaching and research as two sides of the same coin".[4] Consequently, much of her postdoctoral research has been inspired by pedagogical issues, from music education to piano pedagogy and music therapy. Beausang has repeatedly argued for a national system of music education and strongly supported initiatives of agencies such as the Forum for Music in Ireland, Music Education National Debate (MEND) and Music Education Action Group (MEAG).[5] She also played a significant role in the establishment of the first full-time third-level performance course in Ireland, the TU Dublin Conservatory's Graduate Diploma in Music (BMus Perf.) when it was validated as a degree by Trinity College Dublin in 1990.[6]

In more recent years, Beausang has turned to female careers in 19th and early 20th-century Irish music, beginning with a period of research on Ina Boyle, which was finally published in book-form in 2018.