INO Orchestra
The Irish National Opera Orchestra performs in most of INO's productions and is made up of leading Irish freelance musicians. Members of the orchestra have a broad range of experience playing operatic, symphonic, chamber and new music repertoire.
Recent performances have ranged from large-scale operas including Strauss’s Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier ("a dream team" The Arts Desk) and Salome (“a thumping triumph” ★★★★★ Irish Examiner) to Gounod's Faust ("the orchestra played with great gusto" ★★★★ Bachtrack), Puccini’s La bohème (“masterly” Business Post), Verdi’s ever-popular La traviata and Rigoletto, Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (“Orchestral colours are well delineated, with clear-sounding strings and confident brass” Irish Times ★★★★) and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore ("Light-footed and lively" ★★★★★ Irish Times).
The INO Orchestra has also received critical acclaim when performing in chamber format, including for touring productions of Donizetti's Don Pasquale ("as bright, effervescent and quintessentially Italian as an Aperol spritz” The Irish Examiner) and Massenet's Werther ("a triumph" ★★★★ Irish Times).
The orchestra has performed Berlioz's Beatrice & Benedict in a concert performance narrated by Fiona Shaw at the National Concert Hall, Dublin ("exquisite playing from the INO Orchestra’s clarinets and tremolo strings: as magical as it get" The Arts Desk).
The INO Orchestra's contemporary repertoire includes Maxwell Davies’The Lighthouse, the European premiere of Emma O’Halloran and Mark O’Halloran’s Trade / Mary Motorhead and Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s Least Like The Other, Searching for Rosemary Kennedy, in which the orchestra made its international debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2023. In 2025 the INO Orchestra featured in the world premiere of Jennifer Walsh's International Opera Award-nominated MARS at Galway International Arts Festival ("a tour de force" ★★★★★ Irish Times).
Members of the INO Orchestra are also engaged in INO’s diverse programme of education projects, recently collaborating with Cork-based Hip Hop sensation Kabin Crew on the Sounds of the Northside project, winner of the Best Participatory Project in the 2025 YAM Awards.
The orchestra can be heard on Signum Records, on Irish National Opera's recordings of Puccini's La bohème and Emma O’Halloran and Mark O’Halloran’s TRADE/ Mary Motorhead.
“the orchestra must be a star (...) creating momentum; here, under conductor Sergio Alapont” - IRISH EXAMINER on La bohème (2023) ★★★★
“lively, fresh playing from the INO Orchestra” - THE IRISH TIMES on Berlioz Beatrice & Benedict (2024)
“Brian Irvine‘s score, played with tireless energy by 12 instrumentalists under versatile Fergus Sheil” - THE ARTS REVIEW on Least Like the Other, Searching for Rosemary Kennedy (2023)
Work with the INO Orchestra
If you would like to audition to join the pool of freelance musicians from which individuals are engaged in the INO Orchestra on a project-by-project basis, please complete the online expression of interest form. We will be in touch when the next round of auditions has been scheduled. Auditions are open to all suitably-qualified string, wind, brass and percussion players.
