FLAUTIST Cormac Henry is preparing to return to the venue where he gave his very first performance as a member of the national youth orchestra of Ireland.
The Kerry native, who took up the flute aged seven, began has studies at the Kerry School of Music before moving on to study in Dublin and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In 2002 he joined the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as principal flute and it is with them that he will perform at Dublin’s National Concert Hall this Thursday, May 15.
“It’s always a pleasure to be back performing in Ireland, but this visit has a particular poignance for me as we are performing Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances,” Henry said this week.
“This was the first piece of music I ever played as Principal Flute of the national youth orchestra of Ireland and knowing I will be back sitting in the same seat playing the same piece in the Concert Hall as I did 30 years ago feels very special.”
Henry admits that the Irish capital has a “special place” in his heart.
“Although from Kerry, Dublin has a special place in my heart, both of my parents were from Dublin and it was where I really started to believe I could be a musician,’ he explained.
“My uncle was Lord Mayor for a year in the 80s and I have fond memories of riding bikes around the bedrooms (and down the stairs!) of the mansion house when my family used to visit.”
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is the UK’s oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra, the origins of which date back to the formation of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society by a group of Liverpool music lovers in 1840.
