Manchester's first Irish Orchestra makes its professional debut at Irish Festival

Manchester's first Irish Orchestra makes its professional debut at Irish Festival

Manchester's first Irish Orchestra makes its professional début at Manchester Irish Festival

'Ivernia' who are Manchester's only Irish orchestra will make their UK début at a special concert on Sunday 11th March at the prestigious Manchester Cathedral.

The special Gala concert which is being billed as 'Beyond the Shamrock' is one of the highlights of this years Manchester Irish Festival which is now in its 17th year as one of Europe's biggest celebrations of Irish culture.

Lawrence Hennigan from the Manchester Irish Festival website said "We are delighted to be involved in helping to support such a historic cultural event. It is great to see such a young and very talented group of classically trained professional Irish musicians putting on such an event during the festival."

'Ivernia' is the Latin word for 'Ireland', which has been carefully selected to represent some of the best classically trained group of Irish musicians in the UK. The group of musicians will be led by Sinead Hayes, who was born in Galway, but is now based in Manchester. The award winning musician and conductor will be joined by an orchestra of professional musicians who come from all over the UK and Ireland.

The concert aims to put Ireland’s rich and diverse musical culture in the spotlight, showcasing one of our best up-and-coming young composers, Elaine Agnew, our finest living symphonist John Kinsella, and the work of the master classical/traditional alchemist Micheal O’ Suilleabhan.

The Programme will feature Elaine Agnew's - Strings Astray, Ailis Ni Riain piece - Streetsong, Micheal O Suilleabhan - Oilean and John Kinsella - Symphony No. 9 which is a UK Premier for the famous composer who celebrates his 80th birthday this year.

The orchestra is currently seeking sponsors to help it stage such a prestigious event and anyone who would like to get involved or would like further details should email inverniaorchestra@yahoo.co.uk or contact Sinead on 0161 434 1548

Tickets for the concert are just £10 each and can be reserved by emailing inverniaorchestra@yahoo.co.uk or Tel 0161 434 1548