Cormac Ó hAodáin
Our musical director Cormac Ó hAodáin was born in Dublin in 1971 and studied horn with Victor Malirsh at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He was a member of both the Junior and Senior Youth Orchestras of Ireland as well as the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble. Following undergraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, he undertook postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Cormac represented Ireland in the European Union Youth Orchestra (1993-1996) with whom he toured Europe, Russia and South America. On these tours he had the privilege of working with Maestros Kurt Sanderling, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Georges Prêtre and Mstislav Rostropovich.
In 1997 Cormac joined the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra touring Europe, North America and Asia under the baton of such eminent Maestros as Daniele Gatti, Yehudi Menuhin, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Berglund, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Yuri Temirkanov. In 1999 he became a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra performing in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Russia and the Middle East with Christoph von Dohnányi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ricardo Muti, James Levine, Maxim Shostakovich, Yuri Simonov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Charles Dutoit.
In 2009 Cormac was appointed Principal Horn with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Since his return to Ireland Cormac has established the Cassiopeia Wind Quintet, the Irish Horn Quartet and Cornucopia Brass Ensemble. Cormac followed in the footsteps of his teacher Victor, and joined the teaching staff of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2015. The same year he began conducting classes with Robert Houlihan and made his conducting début with the Royal Irish Academy of Music Intermediate Orchestra. In 2016 Cormac completed his Masters in Performance at CIT Cork School of Music and began to conduct the Lourdes Brass Band in Drogheda. Since 2018 he has been the conductor of the St. Agnes’ Community Late Starters Orchestra at their annual Summer Camp and since June 2020, has joined the Orchestra as a Double Bass player! In 2019 Cormac was invited to conduct the Dublin Youth Orchestras Concert Orchestra in Madrid and at the National Concert Hall, Dublin and subsequently was appointed their conductor in 2020. From September 2019 Cormac has been the conductor of the Dublin Symphony Orchestra. In September 2020 Cormac decided to continue his studies, undertaking a Masters in Conducting with David Brophy at TU Dublin. He graduated in November 2022 with First Class Honours. In April 2023, Cormac performed Schumann’s Konzertstück, a work for four solo horns and orchestra, alongside his colleagues from the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, with the Dublin Orchestral Players. Cormac has been invited to conduct the Blow the Dust Orchestra starting in April 2023. Based in the National Concert Hall, this orchestra caters for players who wish to return to playing.
