Ulster Orchestra – Beethoven 200: Ode to Joy! Ulster Hall on 25 September 2026
National Youth Choir of Northern Ireland Senior Choir, Belfast Philharmonic Youth Chamber Choir, Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Methodist College Chapel Choir, Royal Belfast Academical Institution Choir Tenors & Basses, Belfast Royal Academy Chamber Choir
Our 60th anniversary season opens in a burst of excitement and the exuberance of youth, under the baton of Chief Conductor Anna Handler and with a host of guest performers. Brahms’s irrepressible Academic Festival Overture places the emphasis firmly on the festive and we welcome 2025 Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year Senan Sheridan to perform Britten’s dazzling hymn to the sun god Apollo. To close, we are joined by a host of young singers from across Northern Ireland for Beethoven’s epic Choral Symphony; a symbol of community, unity and most of all, sheer, untrammeled joy.
Johannes Brahms Academic Festival Overture
Benjamin Britten Young Apollo
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 Choral
ANNA HANDLER CONDUCTOR
SENAN SHREIDAN PIANO
ELEANOR DENNIS SOPRANO
CAROLYN DOBBIN MEZZO-SOPRANO
KIERAN CARREL TENOR
PADRAIC ROWAN BASS-BARITONE
Pre-concert talk at 7pm in the Grand Hall with Patrick McCarthy and Anna Handler
