New Horizons

RTE's free Horizons series, focussing on contemporary Irish composers, is currently running at the NCH Tues lunchtimes. Featuring the RTE NSO, there are 2 concerts left in the series. On Feb 2 the featured composer is Elaine Agnew, with 3 of her works on the programme including Make a Wish, an RTE lyric fm commission, and you can also hear pieces by Elena Kats-Chernin and Stephen Gardner. Pianist Finghin Collins is the soloist and David Brophy conducts. Brian Irvine takes over as both composer and conductor on Feb 9, with a performance of his Montana Strange featuring Paul Dunmall on saxophone; a late addition to the programme is Bill Campbell's Weather Report. Irvine gives a pre-concert talk @12.30pm. www.rte.ie/performinggroups

RTE Summer Music

Plenty of music from RTE at the NCH over the summer, ranging from light lunchtime fare of a Tuesday to more meaty programming for the evening concerts. The big screen makes an appearance in some of the more unusual concerts: Hitchcock – Dial M for Murder on Sat 20 June sees the RTE Concert Orchestra perform live to spine-tingling excerpts from some of the movie maestro’s most popular films including To Catch a Thief, Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest. And for something completely different, on Fri 7 and Sat 8 Aug the RTECO teams up with Warner Bros for the smash hit show Bugs Bunny on Broadway – the superstars of Looney Tunes cavorting to the music of cartoon composer extraordinaire Carl Stalling, including such delights as What’s Opera, Doc? and The Rabbit of Seville. Meanwhile Anuna bring their ethereal sounds to the NCH on Fri 17 July in a concert with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra; on Fri 31 the RTECO are joined by boy choir Libera, who have sung with everyone from Bjork to Pavarotti; and on Fri 14 Aug the brilliant Altan raise the roof with the RTECO, livelying things up with their sparkling trad. www.rte.ie/performinggroups

Coming Up

Greetings, reader! Back again after a brief hiatus and suddenly it's the merry month of May, with all kinds of interesting stuff on the horizon. The big one of course is Dublin Dance Festival (of which more anon) which kicks off on Fri 8 May with Bumper 2 Bumper, a silent disco in Meeting House Square hosted by Phantom djs, with dance classes and guerilla dance performances to get you into your stride. It's free but you need a ticket, available from Temple Bar info centre. Ivories are being tickled around the city as the Axa Dublin International Piano Competition gets into full swing. Preliminary rounds are at the RDS Concert Hall  (listen live online @ www.axadipc.ie) and semi-finals are at the NCH, culminating in a marathon of concerto playing on Thur 14 & Fri 15 May. The RTE NSO wind up their season with a cracking concert at the NCH on Fri 22. It's Gerhard Markson's final concert as Principal Conductor, and he pulls out all the stops for Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto, soloist Stefan Schilli, and Mahler's sublime Resurrection Symphony with the RTE Phil.