Imagination at its finest as Ulster Orchestra presents Distant Shores at the Ulster Hall, Belfast on 24 October 2025.
Ravel Suite: Ma mère l'oye
Michael Gallen Bád on Alltár (UO co-commission)
L. Boulanger (orch. Hesketh) Trois Morceaux
Debussy Nocturnes
FIONA MONBET CONDUCTOR
MICHAEL GALLEN VOICE/PIANO
MARIA RYAN VOICE/FIDDLE
DÓNAL O’CONNOR VOICE/FIDDLE
MUIREANN NIC AMHLAOIBH VOICE/FLUTE
BELFAST PHILHARMONIC CHOIR
Take a step out of the every day and visit worlds of the imagination. In Ravel’s Ma mère l'oye, we look into the world of much-loved fairy tales such as Beauty and the Beast and Tom Thumb. Michael Gallen’s Bád on Alltár, which translates as ‘Boat From Beyond’, is a fusion of Irish Traditional and classical musics drawing on the Celtic idea of the ‘thin veil’ between reality and the otherworld, bringing something new and previously unimagined to change our lives. Kenneth Hesketh’s arrangement of Lili Boulanger’s Three Pieces for Piano takes us to two imagined gardens and a cheerful parade, while Debussy’s Nocturnes evocatively depict the procession of clouds across the sky, the bustle of a festival and the sea-songs of the mythical sirens, all inspired by paintings by James McNeill Whistler.
