On the Town: The net will be thrown wider than ever in the coming months in an effort to make more young people aware of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland (NYOI).
The NYOI, which celebrates 35 years in existence this year, aims "to outreach to the peripheral areas in counties where we have had very few players . . . in the hope that if you build awareness, you build access", said Joanna Crooks, the orchestra's general manager, at a birthday party in the National Museum in Dublin this week. "And we've tried to create more stepping stones into the orchestra," she added.
"Most of us have some regrets about reaching significant milestones," said Dr Tim Mahony, of Toyota Ireland, the NYOI's premier corporate sponsor. "But a youth orchestra by its nature stays forever young - wouldn't we all like to be like that?
"Players come in at the bottom of the ladder, move through, onwards and outwards, and have been replaced in a steady stream by more young and talented people. They number now more than 2,000 musicians since the foundation of the orchestra in 1970."
Among those at the party were conductor Alexander Anissimov, concert violinist Catherine Leonard and her father, Nicholas Leonard, and John Dennehy, chair of the NYOI and former general secretary of the Department of Education and Science.
The orchestra is doing 35 concerts in 35 venues around the country later this year, said Dennehy, listing Longford, Derry and Kildare as examples of places where the NYOI is scheduled to perform.
Catherine Leonard, performed works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov with the orchestra at the Waterford Institute of Technology Good Shepherd Chapel last night. Under the baton of Gearóid Grant, they will perform again tonight in City Hall, Cork, and then next week in Galway, Lanesborough, Letterkenny, Limerick and Dublin.
Information: www.nyoi.ie; bookings: 1890-613642