A NEW Orchestra...

Our mission is to give Galway City its first professional permanent orchestra. We want to shine a light on the outstanding musicians who join the Luminosa String Orchestra for distinction in performance, organization, innovation and community engagement. Members of our orchestra will reach their full potential in Galway and in an environment of musical excellence, professionalism, integrity, artistic diversity and trust supported by a company with strong financial acumen, a transparent business ethos and passion for success. This company is run by an experienced cultural producer and founder. The musicians in the orchestra are of the very highest calibre and all members of the orchestra and company will be paid according to national pay scales which are reviewed annually. The community will benefit from our forward-thinking and exemplary orchestra and it brings a new element of high-quality performance, cultural entrepreneurship and music education to the city.

Our vision is that this orchestra becomes a permanent professional ensemble of national importance and world-class calibre, representing the west of Ireland, based in Galway and having collaborations with local companies as sponsors, partners and collaborators.

Our constitution and charity purpose states that the main object for which Luminosa Music CLG is established is the promotion of culture and the arts by providing an innovative concert series in Galway city, for the education and benefit of the widest possible public, and for the development of high calibre classical music performance and facilitation of a city orchestra based in the west of Ireland.

Luminosa Music is a registered charity No. 20205430

WHO WE ARE

THE LUMINOSA STRING ORCHESTRA

Luminosa Music CLG was founded in 2018 by Lucy Hayward O'Leary, Nicola Geddes and Adrian Mantu, in order to form, promote, manage and develop Galway’s first professional string orchestra. The word Luminosa means “brilliant” in Italian, (most musical direction on scores is given in Italian). This word was chosen because we want to shine a light on the outstanding musicians who join the Luminosa String Orchestra for distinction in performance, organization, innovation and community engagement. We envisage that the members of our orchestra can now reach their full potential in Galway, without having to re-locate in order to access performance opportunities or develop their professional music career.

We have endeavoured to create an environment of musical excellence, professionalism integrity, artistic diversity and trust supported by a company with a robust company structure, a strong organisational and financial acumen, a transparent business ethos and a passion for success. The community will benefit from our forward-thinking and exemplary orchestra, as it can experience a growing programme with its very own city orchestra. Luminosa Music highlights the wider acceptance, inclusion and celebration of non-Irish-born, Irish citizens, and it brings a new element of music education potential to the community. We fully support the Arts Council's policy on paying the artist and see this is an important element for our development. Of equal importance, is our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion statement, which is reflected in our recruitment policy.

The orchestra members are a collection of largely, Galway or westerly-based professional musicians with world-class credentials in performance and teaching. Our programming and curation policy revolves around providing the community with a series of the highest calibre performances of new, contemporary and classical works, showcasing Irish composers wherever possible, and endeavouring to produce something which feels original, avantgarde, new and exciting.

Luminosa Music CLG is a Registered Charity no: 20205430

For Galway

The Luminosa String Orchestra launched at a showcase concert to an exclusive V.I.P. audience at the Emily Anderson Concert Hall, NUI Galway, on Monday 26th November 2018. The event was introduced by our esteemed Board Member Dr Aidan Thomson, Head of Music at NUI Galway. This exclusive event was supported by Bank of Ireland as our founding patrons who were delighted to support this entrepreneurial arts business. Luminosa Music is a not-for-profit company.

in 2019 our inaugural season entitled Soundings featured two concerts: Maestra and Landscapes.

Our 2020 our planned concert season was cancelled and we performed a special collaboration of Pergloesi's Stabat Mater in Voces Luminis which was live streamed from Galway Cathedral.

In 2021 we performed the ARCADIA concert series, two concerts were live streamed and the final concert was in front of a joyful live audience. Check our our Archive page:

Our 2022 concert Series ÉIRÍ completed in September 2022.

Our 2023 concert series will be announced soon.