RTÉ NSO/GAVIN MALONEY:It's a busy New Year for Gavin Maloney, RTÉ's current hotshot assistant conductor, with repertoire including Dvorak's New World Symphony (Jan 5), the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition (Jan 19), and new music programmes of Donnacha Dennehy and David Lang (Jan 30), and John Kinsella and Krzysztof Penderecki (Feb 6). NCH, Dublin, Jan 5, 1.05pm, €10; Jan 19, 8pm, €9-€30; Jan 30, 1.05pm, adm free; Feb 6, 1.05pm, adm free; 01-4170000
RTÉ LIVING MUSIC FESTIVAL
RTÉ's annual new music bash focuses on the popularly controversial John Adams, with all-Adams programmes from the RTÉ NSO and the London Sinfonietta. Artistic director Ronan Guilfoyle has chosen a juxtaposition with jazz, which brings visits from the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra and Tim Berne. However, Adams won't be there in person - he'll be at home celebrating his 60th birthday. Various Dublin venues, Feb 16-18
EVGENY KISSIN (PIANO).
One-time wunderkind Evgeny Kissin has now, at the age of 35, met a critical hailstorm. Recent British verdicts include "gladiatorial aggression," a "curiously detached, contrived aura" and the conclusion that his playing is "heavy-handed and insensitive". Can it be? Find out when he plays Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin. NCH, Dublin, Feb 25, 8pm, €20-€60, 01-4170000
SAYAKA SHOJI (VIOLIN), ST PETERSBURG PO/YURI TEMIRKANOV
Back in 1987 the Leningrad Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons made their Chandos recording of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony after their NCH debut. The orchestra's back in town as the St Petersburg Philharmonic, under principal conductor Yuri Temirkanov, for a programme of Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky with Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji. NCH, Dublin, Feb 28, 8pm, €40-€80, 01-4170000
NICOLA BENEDETTI (VIOLIN), RTÉ NSO/GERHARD MARKSON
Nicola Benedetti, BBC Musician of the Year 2004, who famously signed a million-pound, six-album deal with Deutsche Grammophon, makes her Irish début in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto on a five-concert tour with the RTÉ NSO under Gerhard Markson. NCH, Dublin, Mar 9, 8pm, €20, 01-4170000; Leisureland, Galway, Mar 13, 8pm, €20, 091-705962; University Concert Hall, Limerick, Mar 14, 8pm, €10-€18, 061-331549; Regional Sports and Leisure Centre, Tralee, Co Kerry, Mar 15, 8pm; Good Shephered Chapel, Waterford, Mar 16, 8pm, €20
