About Me
Having studied violin and bass, Irish has led the Palo Verde Philharmonic to a superior rating in all five years as Director of Orchestras, the first Superior Rating for a Palo Verde orchestra since 2011. Under Irish’s tenure as Director, the Palo Verde Philharmonic began in 2016 and grew to national recognition in 2019 with a 2nd place finish at the ASTA National Orchestra Festival and acceptance to the 2020 Music for All National Festival. The orchestra program tripled in size during Irish’s first three years and has performances at multiple regional festivals in the last 5 years.
During the Covid-19 shutdown, Palo Verde students were denied live instruction for over a year. In an effort to best assist students, Irish reached out to the Nevada School of the Arts and began a partnership that brought masterclasses each week to the Palo Verde orchestra students and helped bridge the lack of ensemble instruction with months of masterclasses and private lessons for the students.
Irish also started a community outreach effort by creating an Honors Recital for the top solos and ensembles after hosting Palo Verde’s own Solo and Ensemble event. The final concerts have taken place at the local library.
Irish continues to hone his orchestral conducting craft with acceptance to the International Conducting Institute’s workshop in Czechia in 2019 and again in 2020 prior to the Covid-19 shutdown. Irish has also conducted performances in Germany and China, along with running rehearsals with all three levels of CCSD Honor Orchestras and a sectional with the All-State Orchestra.
Irish’s previous positions include Director of Bands and Choirs (2011-2013) at North White Jr./Sr. High School in Indiana, where he was named Indiana Music Educator of the year by Indianapolis Youth Orchestras after his 2nd year of teaching and turning around both programs. Irish took the position of Director of Bands in 2013 at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas and added Director of Orchestras in 2015. After 5 years of running both programs and 4 ensembles selected to the Music for All National Festival, Irish resigned as head band director to fully focus on orchestra.