THE DEBUT performance of the Esker Festival Orchestra will take place at the Galway Cathedral tonight at 8pm.
The Esker Festival Orchestra is a new orchestra made up of extremely talented emerging musicians from all over the island of Ireland.
Following four days of residential rehearsals in Esker Youth Village, they are performing an exciting programme which includes Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, Sibelius' Violin Concerto with rising star Aoife Ni Bhriain as soloist, and the Irish premier of Ceilidh by young Irish composer Breffni O'Byrne. The orchestra is directed by Galway born musician and conductor Peter Joyce.
The orchestra was founded to fill a musical and social void that currently exists in this country by allowing young professional and pre-professional musicians from across the country to rehearse and perform together. Essential to this project is the fact that it is based in Galway.
Up until now almost all orchestras and music projects like this are based in Dublin and Cork and so the group are hoping to establish Galway as a centre for orchestral music.
Following a successful Fund It campaign, the orchestra is able to provide all of the accommodation, food, and travel at no expense to the musicians themselves.
For more information, visit the orchestra’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/eskerfestivalorchestra
