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Lindsay Armstrong is an Irish oboist, educator, manager and artistic director. Following initial musical studies with R.A. Megraw at Friends School in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, he took oboe lessons with Dereck Bell ( later harpist in the Chieftans ) in Belfast beginning in 1957. In 1961 he was awarded a scholarship to go to the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he studied with Neil Black.
In 1963 Lindsay Armstrong joined the RTE Symphony Orchestra (now RTE Symphony Orchestra of Ireland) playing oboe and cor anglais and continued to give many solo and chamber recitals which included contemporary works by Irish composers.
With Andre Prieur, principal flute in the RTESO, Lindsay Armstrong co-founded the New Irish Chamber Orchestrea (NICO) in 1970. Following a large number of successful tours, including North America (1978) the Soviet Union (1979) and China (1980) he became the first general manager of the National Concert Hall in 1981. A year later in 1982 he was appointed director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, overseeing the establishment of its undergraduate teaching and performing degrees.
After leaving the RIAM at the end of 1993, Lindsay Armstrong became Manager and Artistic Director of the Orchestra of St Cecilia early in 1995. In this capacity he was responsible for organising the sixty concerts of the complete church cantatas of J.S. Bach, which took place in St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin from 2000 to 2010 (Orchestra of St Cecilia: Bach Cantata Project). After the final concert, a six-disc box set was produced, consisting of some of the finest performances from each of the ten years. From 2011 to 2013 he organised a Haydn Series, in which fifty- four symphonies of the composer were played in the University Church, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Three CD's of highlights from each year were issued.
In March 2015 Lindsay Armstrong retired from his position with the Orchestra of St Cecilia. He is married to the accompanist, keyboard and continuo player Gillian Smith. They have two daughters.
Honours:
1985 Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
1988 Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London
1994 Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music |
