NCH, Dublin Tonight 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000 FIONA KELLY (FLUTE), JEAN KELLY (HARP), NYOI/ALAN BURIBAYEV College Street Chapel, Waterford Tonight 8pm €15 051-855038; City Hall, CorkTomorrow 8pm €15 01-6169642; NCH, Dublin Sun 8pm €18 01-4170000
Which Irish conductor has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the St Louis Symphony Orchestra? The answer is Belfast-born Courtney Lewis, founder and music director of the Discovery Ensemble in Boston, who is also currently associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.
Lewis has featured in the schedules of the Ulster Orchestra in recent years, and now makes his debut with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. His programme includes overtures by Weber (Der Freischütz) and Thomas (Mignon), Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, and arias by Handel, Verdi, Mozart, Thomas, Bellini and Bernstein with soprano Claudia Boyle.
The NSO’s principal conductor, Alan Buribayev, is around at the moment, but he’s working with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland rather than with his own band. His programme of Rimsky- Korsakov (excerpts from The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh), Mozart (the Flute and Harp Concerto with Fiona and Jean Kelly), and Shostakovich (the Tenth Symphony) tours to Waterford, Cork and Dublin.
