Irish conductor Eimear Noone to become the first woman to lead the orchestra at the Oscars

A genuinely amazing achievement.

Irish conductor Eimear Noone will become the first woman to lead the Oscars orchestra at the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony. The Galway-born woman will conduct excerpts from the five nominated scores, although it is not yet clear whether the scores will be presented as a medley or separately. The Oscars gig is the latest in a lengthy list of achievements for Noone, who took to Twitter to celebrate the news, thanking the producers of the award ceremony for the opportunity. https://twitter.com/eimearnoone/status/1220486855793291264?s=20 Speaking to Variety after the news was announced Noone said: "The wonderful producers at the Oscars decided that they would like to finally see a female presence on the podium after all these years." She continued: "It’s an honour to be there, to help normalise something that I do every day. Little girls everywhere will see this and say, ‘I think I’ll do that.’ That’s what we want." The Oscars will not have a host this year, following the success of last year's ceremony, and Noone's presence is bound to increase Irish interest in the event. Now all we need is a win for Saoirse Ronan...