Cause and effect

NEW YORK’S Carnegie Hall, London’s Barbican, and the Cork Opera House are all celebrating the 75th birthday of Steve Reich, the great American composer.

Eight months in as chief executive of the Opera House, Mary Hickson has no qualms about placing Cork in such exalted company. “Why can’t it be Cork?” she says. “Why does it always have to be ‘they do it better over there’?”

Hickson, who pulled pints at the Opera House while studying at UCC, feels that. “being from Cork, and being in this position, makes it important to get it right — to do right by it. I get how much this place means to people in Cork, it puts an added pressure on me. But I think I understand more how to engage with people, and we will be trying to celebrate more Cork stuff and get Cork people involved,” she says.