Hello and welcome to Bittersweet Symphony, a podcast where classical musicians share the bitter, the sweet and the bittersweet of life when the concert halls shut their doors and the audiences vanished. In this episode I’m chatting to Katherine Hunka, leader of the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Her bitter memory is of a career high she was unable to fully celebrate. Her sweet memory is the love that blossomed for her during this time and being able to be totally present for her two boys. The bittersweet was the experience of performing at her favourite festival, with her favourite people, with audiences apart and masked in rows like students in an exam hall.
Katherine is leader of the Irish Chamber Orchestra since 2002 and regularly directs from the leader’s chair. She has directed premieres with Irish composers Sam Perkin, Ian Wilson, Raymond Dean and John Kinsella, as well as performing concertos and chamber music with artists like Jörg Widmann, and Pekka Kuusisto.
In 2020, she released her first solo CD recording with the ICO and received glowing reviews. In that year she also became Artistic Director of the Killaloe Music Festival.
Her group “The Far Flung Trio” with accordionist Dermot Dunne and bassist Malachy Robinson spans repertoire from Bach to Klezmer.
Katherine has guest led Manchester Camerata, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She has been guest soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and the RTE Concert Orchestra.
She is currently a lecturer at the MTU Cork School of Music and the Irish World Academy of Music.
GET IN TOUCH WITH KATHERINE
HUNKA/ICO || Piazzolla Vivaldi Schubert CD
GET IN TOUCH WITH BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY
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CREDITS
Thumbnail Art || Colm MacAthlaoith
Writers || Mick Jagger, Richard Ashcroft, Keith Richards
Violin || Cliodhna Ryan
Production || Cliodhna Ryan
Mastering || Patrick Stefan Groenland
