Female Composer Series, Pinchas Zukerman, Esther: The best classical music gigs this weekHandel’s Esther is a real rarity in Ireland and hasn’t been performed here in more than 100 yearsSat Mar 30 2019 - 05:00
Swan Hennessy: Ireland’s great lost composerThe Irish-American composer was a peer of Charles Ives and George GerswhinWed Mar 27 2019 - 05:00
Patrick Rafter: ‘I was too chilled out to be a violin prodigy’The gifted Kilkenny violinist plays from the heart, but keeps a strong head on his shouldersMon Mar 25 2019 - 05:00
Celine Byrne is Madama Butterfly: the best classical and opera shows this weekAndrás Schiff brings enlightenment to NCH; Maxim Vengerov multitasks with RTÉ NSOSat Mar 23 2019 - 05:00
‘Towards 2022’ programme symptomatic of orchestra’s lazy thinkingNSO sub-season duplicates previous efforts and focuses too much on British connectionsWed Mar 20 2019 - 05:00
Best classical concerts: Emily Anderson rememberedPlus Nathalie Stutzmann’s French tribute and Rafael Payare’s final seasonSat Mar 16 2019 - 05:00
An all-female composer programme? Sounds greatRecent concerts have provided persuasive proof-of-concept demonstrationsWed Mar 13 2019 - 05:00
Thomas Zehetmair and William Howard: the best classical music concerts this weekItalian pianist Alessandro Taverna performs as part of the latest programme in the NCH’s Towards 2022 mini-seriesSat Mar 09 2019 - 05:00
Past tension: the eternal battle between old and new musicThere was nothing wrong with the New Music Dublin Festival – just its nameWed Mar 06 2019 - 11:43
Best classical concerts: Barry Douglass goes back to the startPlus: the NCH’s Female Composer series features soprano Sarah Power and the IBOSat Mar 02 2019 - 05:00
What is really behind the Wexford Festival Opera funding standoff?Michael Dervan: Arts Council is in an almost unprecedented bind over grant for the eventWed Feb 27 2019 - 05:00
‘Men just get away with being composers. We have to do this activism and keep composing’Irish-born opera composer Jennifer Walshe on scores, made-up history and globalisationMon Feb 25 2019 - 05:00
Let the lute one in: this week’s classical highlightsLutenist Nigel North is the cuckoo in the nest at the NCH’s International Guitar SeriesSat Feb 23 2019 - 05:00
Jascha Heifetz’s New York debut turned up the heat on violinistsThe 16-year-old’s recital in 1917 had Mischa Elman remark, ‘It’s hot in here, isn’t it?’Wed Feb 20 2019 - 05:00
Best classical concerts: Beethoven, Verdi and Vilde FrangFrang, one of the nimblest violinists around, takes on a highly athletic Stravinsky workSat Feb 16 2019 - 05:00
Classical music still lags behind on gender policyWhile awareness of the issue has grown, a huge imbalance remains when it comes to the representation of female composers and performersWed Feb 13 2019 - 05:00
Widmann, Znaider, Terfel: The best classical music concerts this weekBeethoven’s knottiest composition opens ICO’s programme; Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel at NCHSat Feb 09 2019 - 05:00
Are Irish music competitions finally getting to grips with gender?It took nearly 30 years for a woman to win the Dublin International Piano CompetitionWed Feb 06 2019 - 05:00
Classical concerts of the week: From Bach to GluckPaul Lewis plays the NCH, while opera Orfeo ed Euridice tours the countrySat Feb 02 2019 - 05:00
Wexford Festival Opera changes 2019 repertoire ‘for financial reasons’Vivaldi opera has smaller cast than previous planned productionWed Jan 30 2019 - 14:34
UK orchestras more efficient at resolving issues than Irish counterpartsAssociation of British Orchestras holds its annual talking shop in BelfastWed Jan 30 2019 - 05:00
Bach, Beethoven and Brophy: The week’s best classical concertsThe grand final of Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition is on ThursdaySat Jan 26 2019 - 05:00
Galway’s ‘Swansong’ festival offers talent and retrospective themesMusic for Galway programme is full of highlights with promise of new cello festivalWed Jan 23 2019 - 05:00
Experienced insider takes reins at Wexford Festival OperaRosetta Cucchi will succeed David Agler as artistic directorWed Jan 16 2019 - 05:00
Wexford Festival Opera appoints new artistic directorItalian-born Rosetta Cucchi has been involved with the festival since 1995Tue Jan 15 2019 - 08:32
ConTempo con brio: This week’s classical highlightsRTÉ ConTempo Quartet play in Sligo and Galway. Plus: ‘Banished’ in Kilmainham GaolSat Jan 12 2019 - 05:00
Wexford Festival Opera’s new direction puts its reputation on the lineMichael Dervan: Festival’s 2019 programme seems to undermine its selling pointsWed Jan 09 2019 - 05:00
Nathalie Stutzmann and Chamber Music Gathering 2019 at the NCHThe highlight classical music events for the coming weekSat Jan 05 2019 - 05:00
Ireland’s forgotten violinist who was buried at GlastonburyMaud MacCarthy, originally from Clonmel, sought music from across the globeTue Jan 01 2019 - 12:20
Brian Boydell: A musical rebel in Roaring Forties DublinThe Irish composer’s memoir is a homage to artistic life in neutral Ireland during the warWed Dec 19 2018 - 05:00
Ropes, plants, baths and other musical instrumentsClassical music highlights for this week include Kirkos’s Body Noise Work projectSat Dec 08 2018 - 05:00
Musical ups and downs in a year of change and challengeYear in Culture Review: Key directors stepped down, while performers stepped up in classical music and operaSat Dec 08 2018 - 05:00
Sound ideas for musical equality, but still no wider visionThe NCH’s female composer commissioning scheme is a small step in the right directionWed Nov 28 2018 - 05:00
Irish National Opera goes for the big time; Gavin Bryars performs at his own birthday partyClassical music highlights for the coming weekSat Nov 24 2018 - 05:00
The complete Fennessy triptych steals the show from BachClassical Music: ‘Before Bach & After’ is Chamber Choir Ireland’s core season concert series for the seasonWed Nov 21 2018 - 05:00
From Mozart to Britten, the requiem will live foreverComposers have always been drawn to honour the dead with powerful, passionate musicWed Nov 14 2018 - 05:00
Deborah Kelleher’s ambitious plan for the Royal Irish Academy of MusicThe director took over at a tough time. Now she’s driving the academy's expansion for the 21st centuryWed Nov 14 2018 - 05:00
Three classical music concerts to see this weekBritish clarinettist Katherine Spencer with the ICO, Yury Revic and Benedict Kloeckner on short tour and Chamber Choir Ireland perform David Fennessy workSat Nov 10 2018 - 04:00
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin put traditional music centre stageComposer’s legacy will be his enriching and broadening of the study of musicThu Nov 08 2018 - 09:52
Female Composer Series at NCH: a small step for women in musicThe Sounding the Feminists initiative hopes to redress the gender balance in compositionWed Nov 07 2018 - 05:00
Keep it simple: What the Arts Council can learn from Sounding the FeministsNew commissioning schemes for women composers are not all straightforwardWed Oct 31 2018 - 05:00
Hugh Tinney’s 60th birthday tour: this weeks classical music highlightsPlus: Female Composer Series at NCH, and piano competition winner Sae Yoon ChonSat Oct 27 2018 - 05:00
Two operatic B-movies, a stinker of a concept, and some sub-Verdian strivingWexford Festival Opera reviews: ‘Leoni’ and ‘Mala Vita’; ‘Dinner at Eight’; and ‘Il Bravo’Mon Oct 22 2018 - 16:25
Paula Murrihy: ‘You’ve got to find and follow your road ’Irish mezzo-soprano on her unusual route into a singing career and her upcoming role as Judith, the fourth wife of BluebeardSat Oct 06 2018 - 05:00
Sounding the Feminists: Women composers in the spotlightMichael Dervan: Moves are afoot to orchestrate more equitable representationWed Oct 03 2018 - 08:46
Classical concerts of the week, from Louis Schwizgebel to Marc CoppeyPlus: Don’t miss soprano Claudia Boyle’s showstopper in The Tales of HoffmannSat Sept 29 2018 - 05:00
New Music Dublin manages to kick up a stormMichael Dervan: Against the odds, Defrosted event offered memorable performancesWed Sept 26 2018 - 05:00
For two years we will again have to do without the NCH as we know itDCU’s Helix, whose acoustics wipe the floor with the NCH, will be the only game in townWed Sept 19 2018 - 05:00
A muscular, finely tuned engine at Westport Chamber Music FestivalThe muscle cars of Cannonball Ireland were no match for the velvet sounds of WestportWed Sept 12 2018 - 05:00
Roll Over Beethoven - and Hoffman: this week’s classical highlightsJean-Christophe Spinosi conducts the ICO; Claudia Boyle in ‘The Tales of Hoffman’Sat Sept 08 2018 - 05:00
