Irish Chamber Orchestra
Music In May
PROGRAMME
May 7TH 2008
Gabor Takacs-Nagy conductor
Mozart Divertimento in F Major, K138,
Dvorak Sextet in A Op 48
Bartok Divertimento
Anthony Marwood
Artistic Director
The Irish Chamber Orchestra has gained a remarkable reputation as a fresh and vibrant force on the Irish and international music scene. Under the dynamic and charismatic leadership of artistic director Anthony Marwood, the Orchestra is recognised as one of Ireland’s world-class cultural assets.
The Irish Chamber Orchestra excels in repertoire ranging from the baroque and classical, through the romanticism of Tchaikovsky and Elgar, to modern-day masterpieces by Philip Glass and commissions by Irish composers such as Elaine Agnew, Rachel Holstead, Raymond Deane, John Kinsella, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and Bill Whelan.
The ICO undertakes a subscription series in its hometown of Limerick as well as Cork and Dublin. The orchestra tours to every corner of the country and international appearances in the world’s distinguished concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
While enjoying a very busy touring schedule within Ireland, the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s unique personality has charmed audiences the world over. Most recently, the ICO performed at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. It undertook Irish and UK tours with Nigel Kennedy, a tour to five of the new EU member states; a ground-breaking tour of South Korea and China. It also toured to Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and the US. Following its performance in Belfast the orchestra will embark on American tour.
Maxim Vengerov, Nigel Kennedy, Maria João Pires and Sinéad O’Connor are just some of the celebrity artists who have welcomed an invitation to work with the ICO in recent years. A calendar highlight is the MBNA Shannon International Music Festival, hosted by the Orchestra in Limerick each July.
A wider audience through international television and radio broadcasts has enjoyed the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s concerts and recordings. The DVD of the Orchestra’s Vivaldi Concert with Nigel Kennedy was released last year on the EMI Label.
The Irish Chamber Orchestra, which is resident at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, is at the heart of the emerging College of Performing Arts at the University of Limerick, where an International String School offering a Master of Arts Degree in Classical String Performance has been established.
The Irish Chamber Orchestra is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor
Gábor Takács-Nagy was born in Budapest and began studying violin at the age of eight. Whilst still a student at the Franz Liszt Academy, he won First Prize in the Jeno Hubay Violin Competition in 1979, after which he continued his studies with Nathan Milstein. From 1975 to 1992, he was founding member and first violin of the Takács Quartet with whom he performed with renowned artists including Sir Georg Solti, Lord Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, András Schiff, James Galway, Paul Tortelier, Mikhail Pletnev, Joshua Bell, Zoltan Kocsis and Gidon Kremer and made many recordings for Decca and Hungaroton. In 1982, he was awarded the Liszt Prize. In 1996, he founded the Takács Piano Trio with whom he made recordings of works by Franz Liszt, Laszlo Lajtha and Sandor Veress.
Since 1997, Gábor Takács-Nagy has been Professor of String Quartet at the Geneva Conservatoire and he regularly gives masterclasses in numerous international academies. In 1998, he founded the Mikrokosmos string quartet with Zoltan Tuska, Sandor Papp and Miklos Perényi which last year undertook a tour of European capitals performing the complete Bartōk quartets; András Schiff joined them for these concerts. In 2001 Gábor Takács-Nagy began conducting orchestras, creating in 2005 his own string ensemble, the Camerata Bellerive and was also named Artistic Director of the Budapest Chamber Concert Orchestra.
