National Symphony Orchestra

No matter where you play it, how many times you play it, we never get tired of playing it.

And this year we put out a version with the National Symphony Orchestra, which was really cool.

And the song was...

It was nice to hear it in a kind of different format and with an orchestra behind us.

She's a past ethics and standards chair for the MAI and holds a master's in conflict resolution and has also authored many publications in the field.

Fiona originally came to these shores as a symphonic violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Denise Waldron is a barrister called to the bar in 1997, specialist in family law, but also had a practice and does practice widely in civil law as well as alternative dispute resolution.

She has seen firsthand the need for mediation in ADR and family law and civil law as well as commercial law for the last decade.

It looked so natural that all of a sudden, after all these years, that two communities could come together around this unusual, not an unusual event, but unusual, I suppose, that was happening in Belfast.

And that wasn't, is it, am I being over-optimistic with my media?

You wandered into my favorite subject, having been a violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra and worked in many a country as a musician.

The thing about the flaccio and all of the art forms, and I would always argue that mediation is a bit of an art form itself, is the vision was bigger than the individual.

Now, from trying to control that situation to a man whose job it is to manage a full orchestra of people in full flow.

Alexander Shelley is the new conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland.

So are there skills a conductor can teach us about managing work and life? We called in to the National Concert Hall to meet Alexander and I first asked him about his family background growing up in London with two parents as pianists.

Looking back now, I realize that what seemed like a normal childhood at the time, because as a kid you don't know anything other than the home you grew up in, was a very unusual context.

Just a beautiful woman.

She sadly passed a couple of years ago.

And it's one of the many reasons that this new role for me, leading the National Symphony Orchestra, it feels not just like a sort of professional step and decision, but also a very personal one.

You know, I'm half Irish.

¶¶ That is just a flavour of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland putting finishing touches to one of the pieces that they are playing tonight called Glasslands by Anna Klein to set the tone for their contribution to Culture Night.

Indeed, all across the country, the 21st edition of Culture Night hits the streets as everyone from musicians to magicians mark this annual celebration in style.

And all events are free of charge.

Evelyn, you might start by explaining the enduring appeal of Culture Night.

Oh, Sarah, it's the big one for the arts and media world.

This is our all Ireland.

We've been building up to this all year.

Fellas rehearsing up and down stairways and up and down alleyways and laneways and grabbing instruments and books and poems.