For almost fifty years the Ulster Orchestra has been at the forefront of musical life in Northern Ireland. Founded in 1966, the orchestra’s sixty three full-time musicians form the region’s only professional symphony orchestra and celebrates its 50th anniversary in the 2016/17 season. In 2014 the Ulster Orchestra appointed Rafael Payare as its chief conductor, joining a distinguished line of past principal conductors including JoAnn Falletta, Bryden Thomson, Vernon Handley, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Thierry Fischer and Kenneth Montgomery. The orchestra gives around forty evening and lunchtime concerts each season in its home, the Ulster Hall, and in the Belfast Waterfront, and performs for the BBC Radio 3 invitational concert series at the Ulster Hall and in front of tens of thousands on the Titanic Slipway for the BBC’s Proms in the Park celebrations each year. The orchestra also participates annually in the Ulster Bank Belfast International Arts Festival.

Photo: Benjamin Ealovega