DR TOM WALSH LECTURE Dr Tom Walsh Lecture Why do we keep coming back to Wexford? JEROME HYNES THEATRE {26} October – 15:30 Ticket €10 TBC Rodney Milnes, Geoffrey Wheatcroft and Elaine Padmore Dr Tom Walsh (1911-1988) was one of the founders of the Wexford Opera Festival (as it was then called) and its first Artistic Director, from 1951 to 1966. His skills as an impresario were developed during the late 1930s when he reformed the Wexford Operatic Society as the Wexford Musical Society, and then formed the Wexford Theatre Guild during the war years. In 1950 he set up the Wexford Opera Study Circle and invited Sir Compton Mackenzie to give the inaugural address. Mackenzie suggested that they put on an opera themselves, and so an operatic legend was born. The Dr Tom Walsh Lecture is presented by Wexford Festival Opera to honour the memory of ‘Dr Tom’.
20 Dr Tom Walsh Lecture
PHOTO: WEXFORD FESTIVAL OPERA ARCHIVES
This year the Dr Tom Walsh Lecture will be given by two international opera critics, Rodney Milnes and Geoffrey Wheatcroft, who have each attended the Wexford Festival for a remarkable forty-four years. Their recollections will be encouraged by a former Artistic Director, Elaine Padmore, who, like them, knew Dr Tom. We invite you to join us for a cup of tea or coffee in the foyer of the Jerome Hynes Theatre after the lecture. Kindly supported by Victoria Walsh-Hamer