World’s Favourite Conductor with World’s Favourite Orchestra!

JoAnn Falletta with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

A worldwide poll in 2015 by classical music website www.bachtrack.com saw Italian-American conductor JoAnn Falletta voted the World’s Favourite Conductor and Ireland’s RTÉ Concert Orchestra voted the World’s Favourite Orchestra. In a perfect match, the two are coming together for the first time on Saturday 25 November at the National Concert Hall. The concert, Viva España, is packed with colourful Latin-flavoured classical favourites, including Rodrigo’s beloved Concierto de Aranjuez with Craig Ogden, one of the most exciting artists of his generation.

Falletta, making her RTÉ CO début this evening, is described by The New York Times as ‘one of the finest conductors of her generation’. She herself started off as a virtuoso guitarist but in music college she fell for conducting, despite real scepticism at the time that a woman could have a career in that area. Even when she was appointed Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999, she was the first female conductor to lead a major American ensemble.

In the Bachtrack poll, Falletta won out over stars like Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev and Daniel Barenboim, and the RTÉ CO beat off competition from legendary orchestras like the Cleveland Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and Falletta’s own Buffalo Philharmonic. A perfect combination in store!