This book presents, for the first time, an in-depth and wide-ranging study of public musical life in Cork from the early eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. The city’s strategic location facilitated rapid economic growth during the eighteenth century, and urban social patterns consolidated within its mercantile communities. Local professionals collaborated with touring performers in sustaining a vibrant concert life, to which military and yeomanry bands frequently contributed. Visiting theatre companies from Dublin brought professional musicians and singers, giving local audiences a taste of current metropolitan repertoire. The cathedral of St Fin Barre maintained a core of professionals who were influential teachers and performers in the city.