Next weekend will see the National Symphony Orchestra playing in one of the world's great concert halls, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. On Saturday, Kasper de Roo makes his farewell appearance as principal conductor (repeating the programme being given at the NCH tonight) and on Sunday incoming principal conductor, Alexander Anissimov, conducts Smetana, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky. Piggybacking on the NSO's presence, the Orchestra of St Cecilia (which includes players from the NSO) plays the Concertgebouw on Monday, in a programme of Haydn, Field, Dvorak and Chopin.

The Irish World Music Centre has appointed a course director and two string tutors to the new MA in Classical String Performance at the University of Limerick which comes on stream in September. The course director is the Hungarian-born-and-trained cellist Ferenc Szucs, whose career has embraced orchestral performance (six years as co-principal with the BBCSO), chamber and solo work, as well as educational activity and research into Hungarian folk music. The two string tutors are Uruguayan violinist, Mauricio Fuks, one-time associate concert master of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and long-time professor at McGill University, described by Yehudi Menuhin as "among the great teachers of our age", and the doyen of great viola-players, Bruno Giuranna, who is adding a second tier to his responsibilities in Ireland - he's already principal guest conductor of the Limerick-based Irish Chamber Orchestra. Details from 061-202590.