Former Franciscan Church, Henry St, Limerick Jul 1-12 1890-923543

The start of the month is as busy as July has ever seen. The West Cork Chamber Music Festivalruns until Sunday. The Walton's Dublin International Guitar Festivalis in full swing. The US vocal group Chanticleer("the world's reigning male chorus" according to the New Yorker magazine) visits Galway, Dublin and Wexford on its first Irish tour.

The Irish Youth Choirgives concerts in Kilkenny and Dublin. The NYOI Junior Orchestraplays in Waterford, Galway and Cork, and the NYOI Symphony Orchestrais in Dublin and Belfast. The Irish Baroque Orchestraplays in Westport and Dublin. Blackstairs Opera has Opera Theatre Companyfor two nights in Kilkenny. IMMA is presenting two concerts celebrating the 60th birthday of composer Kevin Volans.

And the Irish Chamber Orchestra'sannual July festival has acquired a new name and a new venue. It's now the MBNA Limerick International Music Festival(it was formerly named after the Shannon), and it's going to be based in the heart of Limerick City, at the former Franciscan Church in Henry Street.

The festival is promising that: “Following recent acoustic treatment the beautiful interior is ideally suited for music performance”. The ICO’s two programmes under its artistic director, Anthony Marwood, above, are titled Giants of Baroque and Storms in the Night.

There’s a candlelit choral concert from the chamber choir Seoda, a programme of Viennese Opera Classics (with the likes of Cara O’Sullivan and Robin Tritschler), a late-night programme of Indian music by sarod-player Soumik Datta, and a closing programme that pairs Kurt Weill’s early Violin Concerto (soloist Anthony Marwood) with Haydn’s last mass, the Harmoniemesse, for which the ICO is joined by the National Chamber Choir and its conductor Paul Hillier. Oh, and expect the end of July to be almost as calm as the beginning of the month is busy.