Waterford September 2024

The fifth IDO concert took place in Waterford on the 29 th of September with our usual weekend of intensive rehearsals before the performance. The local organising committee did a wonderful job of publicising the concert in advance, including promoting it in Waterford University Hospital with the support of Réalta, our nominated charity. The orchestra members descended on Waterford on the Friday morning of our concert weekend, and we were lucky to be able to rehearse and perform in the same venue which was the fantastic SETU arena. Many of the orchestra members stayed in the same hotel which enhanced the camaraderie and social experience of the event. Along with rehearsing and socialising, we also manged to include a CME event and had a session on Burnout Prevention and Self-Care facilitated by Dr Mark Rowe. Some very brave IDO members also took the plunge at Guillamene beach before rehearsals!

For this concert we were delighted to welcome back Mr Liam Daly as our conductor. Liam had previously worked with us in Limerick, and we again greatly benefitted from his expertise and congeniality , and under his guidance made a lot of progress between the first rehearsal and the concert. We also had the pleasure of working with a guest conductor, Catriona Atkinson. Our concert opened with the Mauritania Overture, a thrilling piece full of the themes of William Wallace’s opera. We then played Van Haal’s double bassoon concerto, and were joined by two wonderful soloists – Michael Dooley and Kevin O’Sullivan ,who is a regular IDO player, and also a retired anaesthetist. Michael and Kevin really showcased the possibilities of the bassoon, and delighted the audience with this virtuoso work. To open the second half of our concert, the Irish harp took centre stage. We were joined by harpists from the Music Generation Waterford Harp ensemble, who treated us to some Irish airs before joining us to play two pieces specially arranged for harp ensemble and orchestra. The final work in our concert was Dvorak’s magnificent seventh symphony. This wonderful work kept the orchestra busy over the weekend, and this paid off when we received a wonderful reception from the audience after our performance at the concert. We were particularly appreciative of everyone who came to the concert to support us, given the very stormy weather that day in Waterford!