Walton, Britten, and Vaughan Williams Smith Square Hall, 7:30pm, 14th June, 2025
Conducted by Cathal Garvey
Salomon is delighted to welcome Cathal Garvey as conductor of our next concert with Charlie Lovell-Jones in Britten’s Violin Concerto, Vaughan-Williams’ Third Symphony (the ‘Pastoral’) and, to start us off, the rousing overture ‘Orb and Sceptre’ by William Walton.
Cathal Garvey studied violin and piano at the Cork School of Music. He went on to read Music at University College Cork. After completing his Master’s Degree in Conducting, he continued his violin studies at the Moscow Conservatory.
On his return, Cathal conducted musicals in Cork and Dublin and went on to work on over fifty productions as Chorus Master or Assistant Conductor for most of Ireland’s major opera companies, including Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Anna Livia Opera Festival, Opera South and Lyric Opera.
In Dublin, he regularly conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Cecilia, the Dublin Symphony Orchestra, Dublin Baroque Players, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music Wind Ensemble. From 2001 to 2006, he served as Principal Conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players, and from 2004 to 2009, he held the position of Musical Director of the Dun Laoghaire Choral Society.
Cathal moved to the UK in 2009 to take up the position of Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor with Grange Park Opera. Since then, he has conducted London International Orchestra, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, Southern Sinfonia, Charivari Agréable, London Repertoire Orchestra, Orchestra of the Reform, Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra, Winchester Symphony Orchestra, I Maestri, BYMT Staff Orchestra, London Medical Orchestra, Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra, Lambeth Orchestra, Leicester Symphony Orchestra, and Morley College Choir. He has also been Musical Director of Newbury Choral Society, Billingshurst Choral Society, and Wokingham Choral Society. He is currently the Musical Director of Reading Symphony Orchestra.
If you would like to play with the Salomon Orchestra, then please
email admin@salomonorchestra.org with your details and experience.
We are always keen to find new players.
Cathal is Artistic Director and founder of the Ulysses Symphony Orchestra, from which he formed the professional London Ulysses Orchestra (LUC). In 2017, he took the LUC on a six-city tour of China, which included a performance at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
As a violinist, Cathal continues to play professionally across the south-east of England. He is on the Conducting staff of the Royal Academy of Music and was awarded an Honorary ARAM by the Academy in 2019. He also teaches on the annual Girton Conducting Course in Cambridge.