The Irish Chamber Orchestra have engaged Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto to direct their first programme of the new year.

Kuusisto, an international soloist of the highest regard, was propelled to fame in 1995 when he triumphed at the prestigious Jean Sibelius violin competition at the tender age of 19. Since then, he has appeared as soloist with an enviable number of the top US and European orchestras and conductors. He has also established himself as a keen chamber musician through, among other ventures, his directorship of Finland's Lake Tuusula Chamber Music Festival.

A champion of the music of Finland's leading composers, in this programme he will put the Irish Chamber Orchestra through their paces in works by Sibelius, Aulis Sallinen and Einojuhani Rautavaara. String staples, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 3 and Tchaikovsky's Serenade complete the bill for this tour, which begins in the University of Limerick on Thursday 1 March, followed by Cork (3) and the National Concert Hall (4). A bargain subscription package for this and forthcoming concerts, all of which are highly recommended, is well worth it (www. irishchamberorchestra. info or 061 202620).

Following the resignations of artistic director Celso Antunes and chief executive Karina Lundstrom, it is hoped that with a five- stop tour, beginning on 1 March, the National Chamber Choir will give good reason to the powers that be to ensure a fruitful future for the state's only professional choir. Antunes was not engaged to conduct this tour so it will go ahead as planned, with Brian MacKay at the helm.

MacKay's choral activities are normally concentrated in Belfast but he also directs two Dublin ensembles . . . Fishamble Voices and the Enchiriadis Treis Choir. The Grand Hall of Castle Coole, Enniskillen, hosts the inaugural concert (1) with dates in Ballinakill, Co Laois (5) and St Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny (7) following. Two Dublin performances are planned, the first of which is presented as part of next week's 'Sundays at Noon' series in the Hugh Lane Gallery.

The National Chamber Choir brings its 'Cantemus' programme home to roost on 9 March with a date at its place of residence, The Space at DCU's Helix.

If there's one part of the country that gets good growth this time of year, it's west Cork, domain of Bantry House, itself the veritable home of chamber music in Ireland.

Exciting details of this summer's West Cork Chamber Music Festival are already available and the 'Callino & Friends' will be welcomed back again over the Easter bank-holiday weekend for more exuberant music-making.

To whet the appetite for such delicacies, the Dominant string quartet will give the final classical installment of the west Cork concert series before the Easter festivities in an evening's recital (7pm) at Bantry House next Sunday. This all- female Russian quartet performed at the 2001 chamber music festival to great acclaim and now return with Tchaikovsky's second quartet and Schubert's Death and the Maiden, a work whose required resources of power and stamina will sit comfortably in the Russian style and sound of this ensemble.

All is in musical bloom. If concert-going is one of those as of yet unfulfilled new year's resolutions, there couldn't be a better time to start a good habit.