Taking up the baton to bring music to all

Culturally, Waterford City hasn’t taken the recession lying down, producing musical and theatrical events of an international standard. Now, the city has its own concert orchestra, thanks to local musician and conductor, Kevin O’Carroll.

“The number of high-quality musicians based around the South-East struck me as a resource that wasn’t being utilised. It was used when the various shows would happen in Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, or wherever. But the nature of the shows changed, so where there used to be up to 20 performers in the orchestra, now, if you have six or eight, that’s big. You have a lot of quality people around the place. I saw that as an opportunity.”

O’Carroll wanted to make orchestral performances accessible to a wider audience. “Any orchestra that visits Waterford — for example, the symphony orchestra, or the European Chamber Orchestra — it’s all strait-laced, it’s all serious. But we are in the entertainment business.”