The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra plays a central rôle in classical music in Ireland through live performance, broadcast and touring. As an integral part of RTÉ, the orchestra reaches a great number of listeners through its weekly broadcasts on RTÉ lyric fm and through its association with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In addition to its annual subscription season, Horizons contemporary music series, national tours and summer concerts series, the orchestra continues to make a name for itself internationally through its recordings with Naxos, Marco Polo and on the RTÉ label. In 2004, the RTÉ NSO won the Orchestra and Concerto: CD Première category of the Critics’ Awards in the Cannes Classical Awards for its recording of Joly Braga Santos’ Symphony No 4 under conductor Álvaro Cassuto. In 2005, Gerald Barry’s opera The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant was released on the RTÉ label to considerable acclaim, as part of a new Composers of Ireland series. This has been followed by CDs of work by Raymond Deane, Seóirse Bodley, Deirdre Gribbin and Ian Wilson, the latter three on the RTÉ lyric fm label.

Full details of all upcoming RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra concerts are available on orchestras.rte.ie.