We look forward to working with the Ulster Orchestra ahead of their landmark 60th anniversary season in 2026/27

WildKat’s global team of experts are providing PR services as well as Digital consultancy for the orchestra’s upcoming 2026/27 season and milestone 60th anniversary campaign.

Founded in 1966, the Ulster Orchestra has been at the forefront of musical life in Northern Ireland for 60 years, with the Orchestra’s full-time musicians forming the region’s only professional symphony orchestra.

The Orchestra has plenty to celebrate: not only is it marking a major historic milestone in the 2026/27 season, but it is also thrilled to welcome Anna Handler as its new Chief Conductor.

The new Chief Conductor will lead the Orchestra in seven concerts throughout the season, beginning with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony performed alongside young instrumentalists and vocalists from across Northern Ireland.

The renowned German-Colombian also takes the stage for BBC Radio 3’s Friday Night Is Music Night – Live!, to conduct works such as Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Brahms’s Violin Concerto and to helm a once-in-a-generation performance of Stravinsky’s groundbreaking The Rite Of Spring in the Waterfront Hall.

Handler holds a master’s degree in conducting from the Juilliard School (2023), where she was the first conductor awarded the Kovner Fellowship. Her extensive training includes studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar, the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola, and the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Her key accolades include the Rising Star Award from the European Cultural Foundation Europamusicale, the Maria Ladenburger Prize for Music, and scholarships from the German Foundation for Musical Life.

For almost 60 years, the Ulster Orchestra has been at the heart of music-making in Northern Ireland. Throughout the turbulent years of the Troubles, the orchestra performed with devotion, dexterity and courage, offering a much-needed cultural release and allowing music to thrive and flourish against the odds. In its lifetime, it has witnessed momentous social change and navigated economic pressures, emerging as a world-class symphony orchestra, ambitious for its future.

You can find out more information on the Ulster Orchestra’s landmark 2026/27 season online here.