Classical music lovers in the Winchester area will be familiar with the city’s leading local orchestra, Winchester Symphony Orchestra, and its successful partnership over many years with musical director, Nicholas Wilks.  

They bid him a fond farewell on his retirement in July, and were already hard at work recruiting a successor in time for the new season.

That new season is now here, and the orchestra is delighted to present its first concert under a new baton on November 19 in their regular venue, New Hall at Winchester College.

Cathal Garvey grew up in Cork in Ireland, learning violin and then studying violin and conducting at University College Cork and the Moscow Conservatoire. 
He started an international career as a violinist and then moved on to conducting in Ireland, where he worked with leading professional and amateur orchestras, choirs, and opera companies. He relocated to London in 2009 to take up a position as chorus master for Grange Park Opera, and has continued to work with a variety of choirs and orchestras.

He is a regular guest conductor across the Southeast of England and teaches conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and elsewhere.

Cathal runs rehearsals with huge energy and enthusiasm, and expects high standards of the whole orchestra, aiming for a beautiful sound and sensitive performance. Monday evenings are an invigorating couple of hours and the orchestra has already attracted a number of new players to swell its ranks.

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Cathal said: “I’m very excited to be appointed as the new Principal Conductor of Winchester Symphony Orchestra. Building on the excellent legacy of my predecessor, Nicholas Wilks, I’m looking forward to guiding the orchestra through the next stage of its story. I’ve chosen a very traditional programme for my first concert – a highly Romantic and popular combination of the overture to Verdi’s opera Nabucco, Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, and Dvořák’s Symphony No.7. However, it won’t be long before I start programming a few quirky choices of my own.”

There are some changes planned, the most obvious of which is longer seasons and more performances, but the orchestra also remains committed to some well-established initiatives, in particular, the biennial Young Soloists Competition, which gives some of the most talented young musicians in the county the opportunity to perform a concerto with the orchestra, and compete for a cash prize and the title of Young Soloist of the Year.

Another longstanding tradition at Winchester Symphony Orchestra is to invite professional soloists of the highest calibre to perform with them, and this concert will be no exception. In an episode of unfortunate timing in March, Covid forced the orchestra to recruit an alternative soloist for Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto at a mere few days’ notice. A young graduate of the Royal College of Music, Thomas Kelly, stepped into the breach and delighted players and audience alike with an extraordinary performance. He returns on November 19 to perform Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. 

Tickets and details of future programmes are available through the orchestra’s website winchestersymphonyorchestra.org.uk/.