Irish Youth Wind Ensemble
The Irish Youth Wind Ensemble, Ireland’s premier wind ensemble led by Artistic Director Ronan O’Reilly, performed two concerts in August, in Cork at MTU Cork School of Music on Saturday, 5 August at 6.30pm and a second concert on Sunday, 6 August at 3pm in the Redemptorist Church, Limerick.
These talented young musicians presented a unique repertoire of classical and contemporary works including Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-flat for Military Band, Michael Sweeney’s Fractures In Time, and Bert Appermont’s Saga Candida.
IYWE 2023 applications are now closed, IYWE 2024 application details will be announced soon.
IYWE perform March from the First Suite in E flat by Gustav Holst
The Irish Youth Wind Ensemble met in March for a weekend of sectionals and workshops with some of Ireland’s finest professional wind, brass and percussion musicians and tutors.
During the workshops, they prepared for a “stitched-together” performance of the March from Holst’s First Suite in E-flat which premiered as part of our Youth Orchestra Day of Celebration on Sunday, 9 May.
Irish Youth Wind Ensemble
The Irish Youth Wind Ensemble was formed in 1985 by James Cavanagh and Colonel Fred O’Callaghan. It is one of the lasting legacies of European Music Year, when the Ensemble was one of many artistic initiatives throughout Ireland. That IYWE has survived and flourished for over three decades is due to the enthusiasm and vision of its founders, the talent and enthusiasm of its members and the efforts and commitment volunteered by numerous supporters.
The group meets once every year for a week-long residential course in addition to other, shorter, gatherings and collaborations. The course commences with sectional rehearsals that are tutored by some of Ireland‘s finest professional wind, brass and percussion players. The Ensemble then move into intensive rehearsals which are followed by a series of concerts in Ireland. The IYWE have also toured abroad on numerous occasions.
The ethos of IYWE is to offer young wind, brass and percussion players an opportunity to study, perform and experience music specifically composed for the wind ensemble medium and to present music that otherwise would not be heard by Irish audiences. As a result, the Wind Ensemble has had many world and Irish premieres.
IYWE has commissioned works by Philip Martin, John Buckley, Fergus Johnston, Jennifer Walshe and John Kinsella. The group has also recorded a highly praised and well-received CD of Music entitled Where The Wind Blows (after the work by John Buckley for wind ensemble of the same name). A second CD – featuring a recording of their performance at the WASBE conference in 2007 – is also available to buy on Amazon and iTunes.
James Cavanagh and Fred O’ Callaghan shared the podium until 1995. James Cavanagh was appointed Musical Director in 1995 and Ronan O’Reilly took over as Artistic Director in 2008. Guest conductors who have worked with the group include Tim Reynish, John Wallace, John O’Connor, Fergus O’Carroll, William Halpin, Mark Armstrong and Wayne Jeffers.
In the past, IYWE have had the pleasure of working with Evelynn Glennie, Finghin Collins, Philip Martin and other distinguished soloists from Ireland and abroad. Recent soloists have included Martin Johnson, cello; Gary Curtin, euphonium; James Dunne, percussion; Kenneth Edge, saxophone; Michael Marshall, trombone and Aileen Cahill, piano. 
Artistic Director: Ronan O’Reilly
Ronan holds a Masters Degree in Conducting along with an L.T.C.L. diploma for Oboe teaching and an A.L.C.M. for Piano performance. His conducting engagements have brought him across Europe, the UK and the USA with various orchestras and wind ensembles. Ronan has been Principal Conductor/Artistic Director of the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble, Ireland’s premiere wind ensemble since 2007. During his tenure as Artistic Director of the ensemble, they have performed nationally as well as internationally at the Mid-Europe Festival in Schladming, Austria in 2017.
Throughout Ronan’s career, he has guest conducted various ensembles, including the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra, Dublin Institute of Technology Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Irish Symphonic Wind Orchestra, Royal Irish Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and more recently Notre Dame Symphonic Wind Bands in the USA. He has also given workshops and guest conducted the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble and the Shorecrest High School Band, Shoreline WA amongst others, during their visits He has also given workshops and guest conducted the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble and the Shorecrest High School Band, Shoreline WA amongst others during their visits to Ireland.
Ireland.
His musical career is now principally that of a conductor but also includes teaching, performing, recording, composing, arranging, adjudicating and examining. As an instrumentalist, Ronan has performed in some of the most world-renowned venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall and Chicago Symphony Centre. In his earlier years, he was an oboist and keyboard player with many ensembles including the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Lyric Opera and the Irish Chamber Orchestra and he has been a regular performer on National TV shows over the years.
Ronan is the Director of the Artane School of Music. He is responsible for the day to day running of the Artane School of Music and for the activities within the Artane Band and School programmes. He also co-ordinates, conducts, composes and arranges music for the various ensembles incorporated within the school. The Artane Band itself performs at many corporate engagements as well as performing for thousands at the annual GAA football and hurling championship matches in Croke Park annually. The Artane Band has toured extensively across the USA, Russia and the UK. More recently they have travelled and performed in Belfast (2016), Glasgow (2017) and Liverpool (2018) Tattoos, Nice Carnival Parade in the Cote d’Azur, South of France, as well as regular performances in the National Concert Hall and O’Mahony Hall in the Helix.
Ronan is Musical Director of the Ardee Concert Band since August 2019 and has been the brass and percussion tutor to the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland for over a decade, also acting as NYOI rehearsal conductor from time to time.
No stranger to the concert hall platform, he has made a name for himself as an orchestral and wind ensemble conductor whose musical experience comfortably strides the worlds of classical, opera, jazz, pop and musical theatre.
