The Orchestra  was established in 1995 as a means of bringing young people together from different backgrounds and communities, through the powerful medium of music. Composed of 140 young people from many parts of Ireland, the CBOI is one of Ireland’s flagship peace initiatives and has become the most acclaimed youth orchestra that Ireland has ever produced. In addition, the CBOI provides essential musical education for 5,000 children in schools all over the country and often fills a void where no musical outlet exists. 

The CBOI performs regularly to sell out audiences in major venues across Ireland working with top professional musicians including Ireland’s premier conductor, Maestro Gearóid Grant, Tenor, Emmanuel Lawler and Uilleann Piper, Patrick Martin. The orchestra performs music of many genres, including specially commissioned works which celebrate the fusion of cultures on the island of Ireland. The CBOI has gained National and International acclaim for the exceptional opportunities, experiences and education it provides for thousands of young people.

The CBOI has  performed for President McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin; for a special gathering of EU Ministers in Slane Castle; in Dublin Castle to welcome the new British Ambassador, David Reddaway to Ireland; and in Armagh as special guests of the North South Ministerial Council to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Belfast agreement.

Chinese Voices, Dublin Lives is a graphical and audio-visual exhibition consisting of a  presentation  on the lives of the Chinese Community in Dublin.  Four short films are narrated by Chinese people or people of Chinese-Irish descent who are working, studying and living in Dublin, and the fifth is a film of the Dublin Chinese New Year festival 2010.

By the Bog of Cats: A new translation of Marina Carr’s play into Mandarin.

There are a staged reading of the translation of By the Bog of Cats to launch this new book. This reading has been performed by the students of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, under the direction of Sarah Jane Scaife. Filmed images of the bog with English surtitles has been acted as a scenic backdrop to the reading. This way both English and Chinese audience members is able to appreciate the heightened drama of this play.

This project is part of an on-going artistic collaboration between Ireland and China. It began in 2006 with the work Sarah Jane did with the students of the Central Academy of Beijing on the drama of Samuel Beckett. A residency in March 2008 in the Beijing Foreign Studies University on the translation of scenes from By the Bog of Cats led to Li Yuan’s subsequent visit to Ireland, funded by the Irish Literary Exchange program, where she began the process of translation of the play. We are delighted to be launching this book of the translation and essays as the product of a close cooperation between director, playwright and translator.

 

Thomas McCarthy will perform readings of his poetry at 3.30 pm on the 12th and 13th October at the Ireland pavilion. 

Regarded as one of Ireland’s most exciting young chamber ensembles, the Royal Irish Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1997 by Elizabeth Csibi. Bringing together some of the Academy’s finest young string players, the Orchestra usually performs standing up, without a conductor, and soloists are generally drawn from within the orchestra.

Its wide-ranging repertoire of music has been heard in some of Ireland’s finest performance spaces including the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, the National Gallery of Ireland and the National Concert Hall. In April 2000 the Orchestra performed a series of highly acclaimed concerts in Paris with Finghin Collions, winner of the 1999 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition and in 2001 the Orchestra travelled to the United States for a four-city tour with distinguished Irish pianist John O’Conor where their performances were described by The New York Times as “zesty and superbly unified” and the Boston Globe as “lively and elegant”. In recent seasons, the Orchestra broadcast Michael Holohan’s “The Road to Lough Swilly” with Irish actor Stephen Rea, participated in the Festival Cultural Européen in Rouen with French violinist Gilles Apap and appeared at the French Senate in Paris during Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union. In 2006 the Orchestra returned to the United States with pianist John O’Conor for a number of concerts culminating in an appearance at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and in 2009 made its debut in the Far East with John O’Conor performing in Korea, China and Japan.

This stylish and vibrant group of musicians is directed by Elizabeth Csibi, Head of Strings at the RIAM.

The group is invited by the Shanghai International Art Festival to perform during the festival. Their performances are set as below:

RIAM Chamber Orchestra and Shanghai Sinfonietta Xu Zhong and Christopher Chen, conductors

James Cavanagh, conductor

James Cavanagh, conductor

James Cavanagh, conductor