Ulster Orchestra
The Ulster Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Belfast, the only full-time professional orchestra in Northern Ireland. The orchestra plays the majority of its concerts in Belfast's Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall. It gives concerts across Northern Ireland, including performances at the Belfast Festival, the Wexford Opera Festival, the Kilkenny Arts Festival, and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Since 1985, the Orchestra has been a regular visitor to The Proms. The orchestra currently employs 63 full-time musicians and 17 administrative support staff.
The orchestra was founded in 1966 by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, with Maurice Miles as its first principal conductor and with János Fürst as its first concertmaster/leader. Fürst later became the orchestra's assistant conductor. The Orchestra has existed in its present form since 1981, when the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra (BBC NIO) was disbanded. The Ulster Orchestra Society Ltd was then established (a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity) with funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the BBC, Belfast City Council and Gallaher Ltd., and the size of the Orchestra was increased with players from the disbanded BBC NIO.
Past Principal Conductors have included Bryden Thomson, Vernon Handley, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Thierry Fischer, and Kenneth Montgomery. Handley also held the title of Conductor Laureate from 2003 until his death in 2008. Since the 2009-2010 season, the orchestra's principal guest conductor is Paul Watkins. Past Associate Composers with the orchestra have included Brian Irvine, and the current Associate Composer is Ian Wilson.
The most recent chief executive officer of the orchestra was David Byers, who was named as interim chief executive in June 2002, and was formally named to the position in March 2003, initially for a 5-year contract. He retired from the post in September 2010. Dick Mackenzie became the interim chief executive of the orchestra upon Byers' retirement.
The orchestra has made commercial recordings for such labels as Chandos, Naxos Records and Toccata Classics.
The Ulster Orchestra undertakes a wide range of outreach projects, including workshops in schools throughout Northern Ireland, pre-concert talks and instrument master-classes. The Orchestra received the Royal Philharmonic Society's first award for an education project (in West Belfast). Recent major cross-community projects involving Belfast schools in areas of social deprivation have included Gulliver in 2005, A Marvellous Medicine in 2007 and The Pied Piper in 2009.[10] Brian Irvine, then the Orchestra's Associate Composer, composed the music for these last two projects. The Pied Piper project was awarded the Inspire Mark of the 2012 London Cultural Olympiad.
Principal Conductors:
Maurice Miles (1966–1967)
Sergiu Comissiona (1967–1969)
Edgar Cosma (1969–1974)
Alun Francis (1974–1976)
Bryden Thomson (1977–1985)
Vernon Handley (1985–1989)
Yan Pascal Tortelier (1989–1992)
En Shao (1992–1995)
Dmitry Sitkovetsky (1996–2001)
Thierry Fischer (2001–2006)
Kenneth Montgomery (2007–2010)
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