Bryce Dessner
Artist-In-Residence
NATIONAL CONCERT HALL 2024 — 2025 SEASON
BRYCE DESSNER
National Symphony Orchestra
(co-founder and guitarist of The National)
André de Ridder conductor | Bryce Dessner guitar
David Chalmin guitar | Katia Labèque piano | Marielle Labèque piano
Bryce Dessner St. Carolyn by the Sea
Bryce Dessner Concerto for Two Pianos Irish Premiere
Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version)
FRIDAY 11 APRIL 2025, 7.30pm
Post-concert talk:
Bryce Dessner, André de Ridder, Katia and Marielle Labèque in conversation with John Kelly, RTÉ lyric fm.
Tickets from €15 nch.ie
National Symphony Orchestra
Bryce Dessner – Artist-in-Residence
National Symphony Orchestra
André de Ridder conductor
Pekka Kuusisto violin
Presented by Paul Herriott, RTÉ lyric fm
Friday 15 November 2024, 7.30pm
National Concert Hall
Programme
Bryce Dessner Mari Irish Premiere / 17’
Bryce Dessner Violin Concerto Irish Premiere / 24’ Dvorˇák Symphony No. 7 / 35’
Post-concert talk and performance
John Kelly, RTÉ lyric fm, will host a conversation with Bryce Dessner, André de Ridder and Pekka Kuusisto, including a performance by Kuusisto of Dessner’s solo violin piece, Ornament and Crime III. This event, in The Studio, will commence approximately 15 minutes after the concert ends. Entry is free.
Broadcast live on RTÉ lyric Live on RTÉ lyric fm
PLEASE NOTE: The NCH does not permit photography or videography during the performance (without prior permission). We kindly ask you to refrain from using any recording equipment for the duration of tonight’s performance.
NCH Board Members
Maura McGrath Chair | James Cavanagh | Cliona Doris
Rebecca Gageby | Hilary Hough | Peter McKenna
Niamh Murray | Michelle O’Sullivan | Don Thornhill
Patron
Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland
Fáilte Welcome
Welcome to this evening’s performance, the first of three concerts in the National Concert Hall’s 2024-2025 Season presenting major works by Artist-in-Residence Bryce Dessner.
Bryce Dessner is a major and compelling figure in new music, be it as guitarist, arranger and co-principal songwriter with the band The National, in his work as a classical composer and in film, and in his extensive collaborations with some of the world’s leading musicians and ensembles. We are so pleased that he joins us in person this evening.
In this, the first of two concerts featuring his music with the National Symphony Orchestra, we are pleased to perform two Irish premieres by Bryce: Mari and the Violin Concerto. It is a particular pleasure to welcome back André de Ridder and Pekka Kuusisto for the occasion. Both are frequent collaborators with Bryce and that brings something very special to the music-making and the encounter. We are particularly pleased to perform the Violin Concerto, dedicated to and composed for Pekka, and to extend the experience with a postconcert talk and performance, hosted by John Kelly and including a performance by Pekka of Dessner’s solo violin piece, Ornament and Crime III. Other concerts featuring Bryce’s music come next year on 26 March and 11 April respectively. See nch.ie for full details.
We hope you enjoy this evening’s performance.
Joe Csibi Head of Orchestra and Chorus
Programme Notes
Bryce Dessner (b.1976)
Mari
During the pandemic of 2019–2021, with most of the world shut down and concerts cancelled, I thought a lot about the impermanence of so many things that we imagine to be eternal. An orchestra can sometimes seem like the most lasting form of performance: every major city has an orchestra and the masterpieces they perform seem like eternal pillars of our culture. But what if those orchestras never played again? What if these great works of art become but mere echoes, gradually fading in our memory? These are the thoughts I had during this year when the orchestras fell silent and the musicians and audiences stayed home.
At the outer reaches of our memory would the sounds of those works combine into a kind of woven tapestry of fragments and recollections? Could it all slow down into a beautiful aquatic drone? I thought about how the act of composing, conjuring sounds from one’s mind or imagination, is very similar to this feeling. A kind of reverence for a world of music we have shared, how memories combine into something original, a spark of creativity or imagination or a dialogue with something that came before.
Semyon Bychkov, for whom this piece is written and dedicated, lives just minutes from me on the Basque coast of France, but we did not see each other for several months during the pandemic. On many long walks through these beautiful forests and mountains I imagined him reflecting on those great pieces in his own vast repertoire and how the sounds of the forest and the quiet of the beautiful natural world might intertwine with his own musical memories.
My orchestral composition, Mari, is a reflection on the pastoral, and it weaves together several textures and fragments of material from historic works through a kind of abstraction and altered context to something new, most audibly a melody from the first movement of the New World Symphony by Dvořák and textures from the fourth movement of Mahler’s sublime Symphony No. 3. My work is named after the Basque goddess of the forest, Mari.
As a concert opener, it felt appropriate to let these notes pass through my fingers and open a new doorway through which my own voice could emerge. The music of Dvořák and Mahler feels timeless but also distinctly modern, especially now as we emerge again into a new world and listen for what comes next.
Note © Bryce Dessner
Bryce Dessner (b.1976)
Violin Concerto
‘It is an endeavour as old as civilization to set out on a road that is supposed to take you to the very end of things, if you keep going… So a pilgrim sets off. One thing is certain, one item is constant in the set of beliefs with which he travels. It is simply this, that when you reach the place called the end of the world, you fall off into the water.’
Anne Carson, The Anthropology of Water
My Violin Concerto was partly inspired by Anne Carson’s essay The Anthropology of Water, which re-imagines the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I now live in the Basque region of France, just beyond the Spanish border on the Atlantic coast which sits directly on the pilgrimage route. In Carson’s essay, a modern young woman walks the Camino del Santiago. Each diary entry opens with a date, a place on the pilgrimage route (many villages are near where we live) and a quote from an earlier literary pilgrim (Mitsune, Basho…).
I spent much of 2020 and 2021 at home during the pandemic, often taking long hikes through the oak forests with my four-year-old son. I considered how journeys by foot create a different connection to the land and environment in which we live. Something about the practice of composing for orchestra, and writing a violin concerto, felt at times like a musical analog to this pilgrimage. Taking a journey that so many have taken before, and in which so many other musical pilgrims have left some of the most iconic and timeless music. So what does it mean for a
contemporary artist to make this same journey and how these artefacts left behind by other artists inform our own course? Why are we drawn to a path so many before us have taken and often? What could I have to say that could be new or specific to my own journey? These were thoughts in my mind as I composed this concerto for my dear friend Pekka Kuusisto, also thinking of the amazing conductors and orchestras who would perform it.
I have also often taken musical inspiration from the sea, a constant source for many artists, and one which has inspired pieces of mine such as St. Carolyn by the Sea and Wave Movements.
In the concerto I acknowledge the history and form of the concerto – loosely functioning in three movements with a cadenza between the first and second… while the second and third movements play almost like one large section and the whole piece is played attacca.
I chose to work with a smaller-size orchestra – which also suits the music well I think. It embraces elements of the heroic form of the violin concerto – with moments of intense interplay between soloist and orchestra – but in other ways I subvert the traditional form, with the solo violin driving large sections of string tutti in the first movement and then in the second movement this unison material distils into an individualist polyphony where each instrument, including every string player in the orchestra, has their own solo. Thus inverting the traditional relationships of soloist to orchestra. The third movement reflects back on this pilgrims journey with wave-like gestures in the orchestra giving way to a more driving and pulsing finale.
In Pekka Kuusisto, the violinist for whom my Concerto is written and dedicated, I have an ideal collaborator having previously composed a violin solo, Ornament and Crime (2015), for him and he has long been a champion of my music both as director and chamber musician. He works at the highest level with a wide range of classical repertoire and is equally hungry for new works. He has a broad knowledge and appreciation of music beyond the walls of the classical genre and brings a creative whimsy to everything he touches.
Note © Bryce Dessner
INTERVAL
NATIONAL CONCERT HALL 2024 — 2025 SEASON
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Patrik Ringborg conductor
Camille Thomas cello
Judith Ring Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake Dvorˇák Cello Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2024, 7.30PM Main Stage, National Concert Hall
Pre-concert talk at 6:15pm with Siân Cunnigham, CEO of Crash Ensemble and renowned composer Judith Ring.
Tickets from €15
SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2024, 7.30pm SETU Arena, Waterford
In association with Symphony Club of Waterford
nch.ie
Antonín Dvořák (1732-1809)
Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Poco adagio
III. Scherzo: vivace
IV. Finale: allegro
Dvořák wrote this symphony between December 1884 and March 1885. Not only had he been deeply impressed by Brahms’s Third Symphony, which he had recently heard, but the older composer had taken a personal interest in his work. Dvořák had been awarded scholarships by the Austrian government in the 1870s while Brahms had been a member of the judging panel, and the two had become friends. When Brahms heard Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony he commented ‘I imagine your next symphony will be unlike this one’ – which Dvořák took directly to heart. It was a prophecy borne out by his resolve to balance the traditional with the international. Dvořák chose the key of D minor – the key of both Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Brahms’s First Piano Concerto. The choice was very significant, considering the personal and musical weight that the composer would invest in it.
Dvořák’s good fortune at that time was that his Stabat Mater and his Sixth Symphony had been so well received at London performances (where he was befriended by, among others, the Dublin-born professor Charles Stanford) that the London (later Royal) Philharmonic Society commissioned a symphony.
At this time Dvořák’s compositional method was undergoing a radical change. Up to and including his Sixth Symphony, he had concentrated on celebrating the folk music of his own country – Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic – in a symphonic manner. Dvořák was deeply affected by the contemporary demand by Czech people for the establishment of their own national state, which wasn’t finally achieved until the creation of Czechoslovakia after the First World War. He resolved to reflect some of this aspiration in the symphony, writing to a friend ‘God grant that this Czech music will move the world’.
But Dvořák also realised that cosmopolitan audiences wanted to hear an international style that was moving away from the local and the ethnic. Ironically, the predominant musical style at that time was that of Austro-Hungary, the very
political system from which the Czech people were demanding their freedom. The Symphony No. 7 was a significant attempt on Dvořák’s part to achieve this, while at the same time writing music of universal appeal.
So two tensions were present in Dvořák’s mind as he set out to write the symphony, which some have called his ‘tragic’ symphony: the desire to acknowledge the Czech spirit of freedom in music and thereby impress foreign audiences with that spirit, and the need to satisfy a cosmopolitan audience.
The ‘Czech’ theme is most evident in the opening movement and in an echo of the Bohemian dance, the furiant, in the scherzo. The finale, too, suggests the Czech people’s resistance to oppression. But there was one further element in Dvořák’s mind at the time: on the sketch for the second, slow, movement he wrote ‘From the sad years’. This has been interpreted in several ways: his sadness at the deaths of his mother and his eldest child, and the fact that his great compatriot, the composer Bedřich Smetana, had recently been confined to an asylum.
There is no doubt, however, that Dvořák’s overall intention was ‘Love, God and my Fatherland’. Given that the London Philharmonic Society had previously commissioned Beethoven’s Ninth (Choral) Symphony with its ‘Ode to Joy’, Dvořák’s triple dedication may have been a deliberate nod to Beethoven. There’s no doubt that the work is deeply spiritual, in both the religious and the nationalist tone of the work, which proceeds from a sense of struggle towards ultimate resolution.
The Seventh Symphony had its premiere in London in April 1885 (a month after its completion), with the composer conducting. It impressed the critics – even the often curmudgeonly George Bernard Shaw, who recognised the Bohemian spirit, its sadness and its capacity to overcome adversity. Dvořák conducted it again seven months later in the Rudolfinum Hall in Prague (today, the home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra).
Note by Richard Pine © National Concert Hall
Bryce Dessner musician and composer
Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is guitarist, arranger, and co-principal songwriter. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with upcoming films including Sing Sing starring Colman Domingo, and John Crowley’s We Live in Time starring Andrew Garfield. Over the years he has garnered great acclaim for his work on films such as Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant with the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, and for his music to Fernando Meirelles’ The Two Popes for Netflix.
During the 2024-2025 season Bryce Dessner will be Artist-in-Residence at the National Concert Hall, Dublin and Ars Music Festival at BOZAR, Brussels. In addition to being the creative chair of the Tonhalle Zurich last season, his many past residencies include being one of eight San Francisco Symphony Collaborative Partners, Artist-in-Residence at London’s Southbank Centre and with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Over the 2024-2025 season, Dessner’s music will be performed by orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Münchner Philharmoniker, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonie Zuidnederland. Recent major new works include a Piano Concerto premiered by Alice Sara Ott and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in January 2024 and now being performed internationally; a Concerto for Two Pianos premièred by Katia and Marielle Labèque and the London Philharmonic Orchestra; and a Violin Concerto premièred and performed internationally by Pekka Kuusisto.
Other major new works include a Trombone Concerto for Jörgen van Rijen commissioned by Dallas Symphony and l’Orchestre National d’Île de France; Voy a Dormir for mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Skrik Trio for Steve Reich and Carnegie Hall; the ballet No Tomorrow co-written with Ragnar Kjartansson; Wires for Ensemble intercontemporain; The Forest for large cello ensemble, Gautier Capuçon and Fondation Louis Vuitton; and Triptych (Eyes for One on Another), a major theatre piece integrating the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe and premiered by Los
Angeles Philharmonic. Dessner also scored the music – involving full orchestra and a 200-member choir – for the Louis Vuitton show at the Louvre in Paris as part of Paris Fashion Week 2020.
‘Dessner […] moves fluidly between rock and classical and everywhere in between.’ (The Guardian).
In August 2024, Bryce Dessner released Solos (Sony Classical) which showcases his collection of solo instrument pieces in collaboration with some of the world’s leading musicians including Katia Labèque, Anastasia Kobekina, Pekka Kuusisto, Nadia Sirota, Colin Currie and Lavinia Meijer. Dessner’s recordings also include El Chan; St. Carolyn by the Sea (both on Deutsche Grammophon); Aheym, commissioned by Kronos Quartet; Tenebre, an album of his works for string orchestra recorded by Germany’s Ensemble Resonanz and which won a 2019 Opus Klassik award and a Diapason d’Or; When we are inhuman with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Eighth Blackbird (2019), and Impermanence (2021) with Australian String Quartet and which won the Libera award.
Also active as a curator, Dessner is regularly requested to programme festivals and residencies around the world at venues such as at the Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris, and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and during the 2023-2024 season was Creative Chair of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. He co-founded and curates the festivals MusicNOW in Cincinnati, HAVEN in Copenhagen, Sounds from a Safe Harbour and PEOPLE.
Bryce Dessner lives in France.
Bryce Dessner’s music is published by and available from Chester Music, part of the Wise Music Group.
NATIONAL CONCERT HALL 2024 — 2025 SEASON
INTERNATIONAL ORCHESTRAS AND RECITALS
SATURDAY 30
NOVEMBER 2024
7.30PM
PARAORCHESTRA
Charles Hazlewood conductor
Victoria Oruwari soprano
The pioneering ensemble of disabled and non-disabled musicians, with guest soprano Victoria Oruwari, led by Charles Hazlewood perform Górecki’s cathartic and hauntingly beautiful work Symphony of Sorrowful Songs , preceded by Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, a melancholic, iridescent and urgent piece realised for full string orchestra by Mahler.
Pre-concert talk 6.15pm-7pm
Tickets from €15
Discounts and Packages Available nch.ie
André de Ridder conductor
André de Ridder is Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Theater Freiburg. He is in demand internationally for his impressive stylistic versatility, from Baroque to contemporary music. His projects and collaborations take him to orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Orchestre de Paris and Concertgebouworkest.
During the 2023-2024 season, he conducted new productions of Hänsel und Gretel, Don Carlos and Die Zauberflöte, the latter in an imaginative retelling set within an immersive gaming world and directed by frequent collaborator Marco Štorman, at Theater Freiburg. Other season highlights in Freiburg will include concerts with soloists Colin Currie, Isata Kanneh-Mason and Antje Weithaas, and symphonic works such as Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Mahler’s Symphony No.5. De Ridder will also make guest appearances with the New World Symphony Orchestra Miami, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He returns to Staatstheater Stuttgart for revivals of the 2019 production of Nixon in China, which he premiered, and returns to Theater Basel, taking their critically acclaimed 2022 production of Einstein on the Beach to Philharmonie de Paris.
He continues his curatorship and performances of ‘Unclassified Live’ at London’s Southbank Centre, a series of genre-defying performances featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra. The ‘live-wire conductor’ (The Times) has formed close relationships with some of the most prominent opera composers of our generation, including Michel van der Aa, Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly and Kaija Saariaho. De Ridder also recently performed repertoire works such as Bluebeard’s Castle (Philharmonia Orchestra) and Scenes from Goethe’s Faust by Schumann (Staatstheater Stuttgart), collaborating with directors such as Kasper Holten, Barrie Kosky and Enda Walsh. He made his debut at Oper Köln last season, for performances of Der Meister und Margarita by York Höller. In 2013, De Ridder founded s t a r g a z e, performing projects ranging from Bach to avant-garde electronics, and contemporary classical music.
Pekka Kuusisto violin
Violinist, conductor, and composer Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to repertoire. Kuusisto is Artistic Director of Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Co-Director of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from the 2023-2024 season. He is also a Collaborative Partner of San Francisco Symphony, and Artistic Best Friend of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
In the 2023-2024 season, Kuusisto performed with Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, Helsinki Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and Boston Symphony Orchestra. He appeared as guest conductor with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de chambre de Paris. As Council, Kuusisto also tours North America and Australia with American singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane.
In the 2022-2023 season Kuusisto debuted with Berliner Philharmoniker and performed with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He returned to orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Kuusisto made his debuts as a conductor with Philharmonia Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He is also Sinfonieorchester Basel’s Artist-in-Residence with whom he appeared as conductor, soloist, and recitalist.
Kuusisto is an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music and a gifted improviser and regularly engages with people across the artistic spectrum. Uninhibited by conventional genre boundaries and noted for his innovative programming, recent projects have included collaborations with Hauschka and Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, pioneer of electronic music Brian Crabtree, eminent jazz-trumpeter Arve Henriksen, juggler Jay Gilligan, accordionist Dermot Dunne and folk artist Sam Amidon.
In 2023, Kuusisto’s releases included an album for BIS on which he features as conductor of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra performing the first recording of Jaakko Kuusisto’s Symphony, Op.39, and another for Alba as violinist with Malin Broman and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra performing works by Tarrodi, Byström, Larsson and Zinovjev.
Pekka Kuusisto plays the Antonio Stradivari Golden Period c.1709 ‘Scotta’ violin, generously loaned by an anonymous patron.
Meet The Orchestra
Get to know the people behind the instruments of the National Symphony Orchestra
Pamela Stainer Trumpet
When did you join the National Symphony Orchestra?
March 2024.
What made you decide to pursue a career in music?
Music has always surrounded me, with my Mum being an opera singer and Dad a trumpet player. I can remember going to see my Mum perform across the UK and I just loved it. It would have been very hard for me to not be a musician given my upbringing.
Tell us your favourite NSO story/memory so far.
Mahler’s Second Symphony with Anja Bihlmaier was absolutely amazing. Despite having played the piece a couple of times before, Anja made it sound so different. It was one of my most memorable concerts so far as a musician.
What are you most looking forward to in our 2024-2025 season?
Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with Anja Bihlmaier in May next year.
Who is your favourite composer, and what is your favourite work?
As a brass player it’s hard to deny my love for anything loud! My ultimate favourite has to be Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, which is coming up in December.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you most like to be?
I am passionate about mental health, so I’d do something with my counselling qualification. My other dream is to have a herd of Alpacas! They are the most calming and therapeutic animals to be around, so to be able to have some on my own land would be amazing.
What is your greatest achievement –either musical or general?
My gorgeous eight-year-old son, Freddie. I’m so proud of the kind, caring young man he is becoming. And he’s brilliant craic!
Who is your musical idol?
Maurice Murphy – the Star Wars soundtracks give me goosebumps every time.
If you could have dinner with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be, and why?
Brené Brown. She is the most inspiring woman. Her TED talk on vulnerability is life changing.
National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra has been at the centre of Ireland’s cultural life for over 75 years. Formerly the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, it was founded in 1948 as the Raidió Éireann Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, the Orchestra transferred from RTÉ to the remit of the National Concert Hall.
Resident orchestra of the National Concert Hall since its opening in 1981, it is a leading force in Irish musical life through year-long programmes of live music –ranging from symphonic, choral and operatic to music from stage and screen, popular and traditional music, and new commissions – alongside recordings, broadcasts on RTÉ and internationally through the European Broadcasting Union. Schools concerts, family events, initiatives for emerging artists and composers, collaborations with partner promoters and organisations extend the orchestra’s reach.
As a central part of the National Concert Hall’s 2024-2025 Season, the NSO presents more than 55 performances shared between Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Cork. They include collaborations with international and Irish artists, ensembles and conductors – including a number of events with the National Concert Hall’s Artists-in-Residence: the renowned American musician and composer Bryce Dessner, the internationally acclaimed Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, and the dynamic musician and presenter Jessie Grimes. The programme is rich and varied, presenting repertoire from across the centuries to the present day including world and Irish premieres, choral masterpieces, birthday and anniversary celebrations, family concerts and screenings, schools concerts, and professional initiatives for emerging singers and composers. A focus on nature and the environment is a central part of the season’s programming.
Highlights with the Artists-in-Residence are many. They include three Irish premieres by Bryce Dessner: Mari, his Violin Concerto performed by its dedicatee, Pekka Kuusisto, and his Concerto for Two Pianos performed by Katia and Marielle Labèque, for whom it was written. Tara Erraught performs virtuosic works by Mozart, Haydn and Marianne von Martínez, with historical performance specialist Laurence Cummings conducting, and arias by Mozart, Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, with Clelia Cafiero conducting. Tara is also the driving force behind Celebrating the Voice, a week-long professional development programme for young singers which culminates in an opera gala with the NSO conducted by Anu
Tali. Jessie Grimes leads immersive, family-friendly concerts including Our Precious Planet and explorations of iconic works: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique as part of the ASD-friendly Symphony Shorts, as well as Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, featuring new and specially commissioned shadow puppetry, and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
Other exciting highlights include Dame Sarah Connolly joining conductor Mihhail Gerts for Alma Mahler’s Six Songs; an 80th birthday celebration for conductor Leonard Slatkin which includes the world premiere of his son Daniel’ s cosmic journey, Voyager 130; Hugh Tinney performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto; Speranza Scappucci conducting a Ravel Birthday Celebration; John Storgårds conducting Rachmaninov and Shostakovich; Anja Bihlmaier conducting Mahler’s Ninth Symphony; and Ryan McAdams conducting the First Violin Concerto by Philip Glass with NSO Leader Elaine Clark as soloist; and John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Become Ocean. Jaime Martín returns to conduct Chopin’s Second Concerto with Yeol Eum Son as the soloist, and former Principal Conductor Gerhard Markson returns for Stanford’s Requiem featuring the National Symphony Chorus and soloists including Máire Flavin and Sharon Carty.
World premieres by Deirdre McKay and Ailís Ní Ríain and, as part of Composer Lab, by Amelia Clarkson, Finola Merivale, Barry O’Halpin, and Yue Song all feature. Irish premieres include a new orchestral setting of Philip Glass’s film score Naqoyqatsi with the Philip Glass Ensemble; Stephen McNeff’s The Celestial Stranger with Gavan Ring as soloist; James MacMillan’s St. John Passion with the National Symphony Chorus and Chamber Choir Ireland; and Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá’s Third Symphony.
Additional family events include popular screenings of classic children’s stories by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler – Stick Man and The Snail and the Whale – and Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. Music in the Classroom returns with Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate Music Guide events, and Musical Adventures for Primary School children.
National Symphony Orchestra
1st Violin
Elaine Clark (Leader)
Jens Lynen
Sebastian Liebig †
Orla Ní Bhraoin °
Catherine McCarthy
Ting Zhong Deng
David Clark
Anne Harte
Bróna Fitzgerald
Sylvia Roberts
Claudie Driesen
Karl Sweeney
Molly O’Shea
Hannah Choi
2nd Violin
Elizabeth McLaren ‡
Joanne Fleming Campbell °
David O’Doherty
Rosalind Brown
Paul Fanning
Dara O’Connell
Melanie Cull
Evelyn McGrory
Elena Quinn
Magda Kowalska
Matthew Wylie
Erin Hennessey
Viola
Abigail Fenna
Francis Harte °
Ruth Bebb
Neil Martin
Cliona O’Riordan
Nathan Sherman
Alison Comerford
Carla Vedres
Jane Tyler
Cian Mac Garry
Cello
Martin Johnson •
Polly Ballard ‡
Violetta-Valerie Muth °
Úna Ní Chanainn
Filip Szkopek
Maria Kolby-Sonstad
Lucy Hoile
Matthew Lowe
Double Bass
Ronan Dunne
Mark Jenkins ‡
Peter Smith
Waldemar Kozak
Helen Morgan
Jenni Meade
Maeve Sheil
Flute
Catriona Ryan • Ríona Ó Duinnín ‡
Piccolo
Sinéad Farrell †
Oboe
Matthew Manning •
Sylvain Gnemmi ‡
Cor Anglais
Jenny Magee
Clarinet
Gábor Varga
Deirdre O’Leary
Bass Clarinet
Fintan Sutton †
Bassoon
Greg Crowley •
Emma Simpson
Contrabassoon
Hilary Sheil †
Horn
Tim Thorpe
Peter Ryan
Bethan Watkeys †
David Atcheler ◊
Dewi Jones
Trumpet
Simon Blatter
Oscar Whight
Pamela Stainer
Trombone
Jason Sinclair •
Gavin Roche ‡
Bass Trombone
Josiah Walters †
Tuba
Francis Magee •
Timpani
Luke Taylor
Percussion
Rebecca Celebuski
Bernard Reilly ◊
Richard O’Donnell
Brian Dungan
Ronan McKee
Harp
Andreja Malir •
Claire O’Donnell
Celeste
Fergal Caulfield
• Section Leader
† Principal
‡ Associate Principal
° String Sub Principal
◊ Sub Principal 1
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NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
PERSPECTIVES
with Simon Fisher Turner, Russell Tovey, Travis Alabanza, Jay Bernard, Joelle Taylor and Lucy Railton
SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2024, 8PM
Tickets from €15
Discounts for Friends & Groups of 10 or more nch.ie