Young Camerata Ireland Trio, NCH, John Field Room, Dublin

First convened by Barry Douglas at last year's Clandeboye Festival, the Young Camerata Ireland Trio includes the festival's 2004 and 2006 Young Musician laureates, pianist Michael McHale and flautist Eimear McGeown.The group's cellist, Brian O'Kane, has recently netted two top bursaries for the pursuit of further studies at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.Their performance in the National Concert Hall's Summer Sounds at Lunchtime series reached the high standards of technical assurance, instrumental balance and interpretive insight you'd expect from Douglas's proteges.

The hard-working musicians of chamber orchestra Camerata Ireland have barely had time to draw breath this month, following a number of exciting international festival dates.

Sunday, June 10th
Music in Great Irish Houses Festival 

Michael Dervan (Irish Times)

"The music making in the three works for strings alone was genial and mostly well polished." For the Shostakovich "Douglas directed the work from the keyboard and took to the knockabout writing with something of the blackly manic energy that often informed the composer's own playing. Alison Balsom's trumpet playing was incisive and yet, in spite of the acoustic power of the instrument, she had such firm control that she managed to stay firmly within the scale of the performance. I DON'T THINK I'VE HEARD A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF THIS WORK THAT WAS AS RIOTOUS OR AS PERSUASIVE"

STATE APARTMENTS, DUBLIN CASTLE
CAMERATA IRELAND
BARRY DOUGLAS, director/piano
ALISON BALSOM, trumpet