The Belfast Youth Orchestra will open the City Hall Concert season on July 15.Programmers for the city’s free summer music series usually abide by the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” principle. This year, though, they’re trying a little something different and a bit classier…or at least classical. The oldest youth orchestra in Ireland, more adept at playing Dmitri Shostakovich than Donna Summer, will make its debut at Government Center in the season opener on July 15.
Last Friday evening, however, City Hall Plaza belonged indisputably to the Queen of Disco. It was once again transformed into a retro dance club saluting the Boston-born diva at the 2nd annual Donna Summer Memorial Roller Disco Party. Thousands, many in eye-catching hot pants and glitter, tightened the wheels of their skates for an ecstatic evening of reliving the music and memories of the former Jeremiah Burke student who rose to world-wide acclaim with hits like “Last Dance,” “Bad Girls,” and “She Works Hard for the Money.”
Appetites were thus whetted for the launching of the 43rd season of the Dorothy Curran Wednesday Night Concert Series, the city’s longest-running outdoor concert program.
Three of the four scheduled acts have played many times before to their loyal, gray-haired fans. July 29 will be Dance Night with Stardust. On Aug. 5, Michael Dutra channels “Strictly Sinatra.” On Aug. 12, the series ends with a Disco Party, this time featuring crowd favorites, the Tavares.
But the season opener (July 15) is not the usual swinging big band, but rather a real stage-crowder from the Hub’s newest sister city: The City of Belfast Youth Orchestra (CBYO).
CBYO was formed in 1955 as the first attempt to bring together young Belfast musicians of similar age and abilities to play classical repertoire. One of the orchestra’s first members was Sir James Galway, who recalls that in the early days “we had quite a handful of flutes, brass by the ton, and about three string players!”
Over the last six decades, the group has evolved dramatically, contributing significantly to the cultural life of Belfast and touring in countries like Poland, France, Germany, and Italy. CBYO actually made its Boston debut back in 1997 when it played Quincy Market and the Hatch Shell.
The Belfast City Council entered into a Sister City Agreement with the City of Boston in May 2014 to explore academic, business and cultural links between the two cities.
Said the lord mayor of Belfast, Arder Carson, when visiting the Hub: “The City of Belfast Youth Orchestra is one particular group that will benefit from our sister city relationship with Boston. This is an excellent young orchestra made up of 84 young people from across the city and this opportunity will showcase it to a wider audience in the US.”
Shortly after their Curran concert appearance, the CBYO will play at the Irish Cultural Centre of New England in Canton on July 17. The orchestra will stay on in the US to perform concerts in New Jersey and Long Island.
