Barely a week after announcing the appointment of the leading American conductor, JoAnn Falletta, as its new Principal Conductor, the Ulster Orchestra is preparing to end its 2010/11 Season with an American-flavoured concert in the Belfast Waterfront on Friday 20 May.
The grand finale of the Orchestra’s Season features Peter Donohoe playing that favourite of popular classics – Gershwin’s Piano Concerto – a jazz-inspired take on the classical concerto.
Also featuring is Copland’s ever-popular Rodeo and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, one of the composers best-loved and exciting works written for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Lydia Gamble, the Ulster Orchestra’s Head of Marketing and Development said: “The closing concert, conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, promises to be a superb finish to a wonderful Season and is the ‘last-chance-saloon’ to hear the Orchestra before its summer break.”
However, she added: “Fear not! We unveiled our forthcoming Season 2011/12 at a launch in the Ulster Hall on Monday 9 May and there is plenty to look forward to when concerts resume in September, providing a platform for some of the finest international conductors and soloists to bring our audiences some fabulous music”.
The Orchestra’s new brochure is available from its Box Office or can be downloaded from the homepage of its website – www.ulsterorchestra.com
And so audiences don’t have to go completely ‘cold turkey’, there’s one more lunchtime concert of the current Season – at 1.05pm on Wednesday 8 June in the Ulster Hall. And of course not forgetting the BBC’s Summer Invitation Concert series with the Orchestra which culminates in Proms in the Park on Saturday 10 September.