SINEAD HAYES
Irish Conductor
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SINEAD HAYES
Royal Philharmonic Society Women's Conducting Programme (Excel) 24-25
Conductor: Royal Irish Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra
Irish orchestral conductor Sinead Hayes has forged a career conducting symphonic and opera repertoire, with strong experience in choral/orchestral repertoire, contemporary music and a particular interest in the work of established and emerging Irish composers.
The 2024/25 season sees Sinead focus on conducting orchestral and operatic repertoire, with returns to Ulster Orchestra for multiple projects, the RTE Concert Orchestra for a live broadcast on RTE Lyric FM, Irish National Opera (Guest Chorus Master on Rigoletto), and the Fews Ensemble. She also works as assistant conductor with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, assisting conductor Dinis Sousa on Tippett's A Child of our Time.
She returns to the Ulster Orchestra for a major project by Brian Irvine in March 2025, and a Radio 3 Invitation concert in August 2025, and in May 2025 Sinead will embark on a two week tour to Canada with Branar Theatre Company conducting multiple performances of "Story of a Day" in Ottawa and Toronto.
She is in her fourth season as conductor of the Royal Irish Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Excel Women’s Conducting (WoCo) Programme 2024-25, working with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Newcastle in two WoCo projects in 2025.
23/24 was Sinead's 10th and final season as conductor of Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble (HRSE) in Belfast with whom she premiered over 70 new works by Irish and international composers. She returns to the ensemble as a guest conductor this season.
She has worked with all the major professional orchestras in Ireland including the RTE Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra & National Symphony Orchestra. Her debut CD with Ulster Orchestra featuring the music of Greg Caffrey, was released in May 2024 on the Divine Art Label. Sinead was also principal guest conductor of Galway's professional string orchestra the Luminosa String Orchestra for two seasons.
In opera she has conducted productions for Northern Ireland Opera, Irish National Opera and Opera Collective Ireland. She has also been invited as guest conductor with the Orquestra do Algarve, as well as working in masterclass with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bochumer Symphoniker, Argovia Philharmonic, North Czech Philharmonic and others.
Sinead completed her MMus in conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music and her BMus in violin and composition at City University, London, and participated in masterclasses with Johannes Schlaefli, Sylvain Cambreling & Sir Roger Norrington among others.
She was one of three finalists in the Interaktion Conducting Workshop, chosen by the players of the Critical Orchestra Berlin (leader: Lothar Strauss), whose players are drawn from the Berlin Staatskapelle and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. She has worked as assistant conductor to James Lowe (Halle Harmony Orchestra), Alex Ingram (British Youth Opera), André de Ridder (Irish National Opera) and others.
As a violinist, Sinead leads the Ivernia String Quartet and solstrek strings as well as playing with ConTempo Quartet and Newry Chamber Music. She is also a professional level Irish traditional fiddle player, and in 2017 performed alongside members of the Berliner Philharmoniker in two of the orchestra’s family concerts in the Philharmonie, Berlin.
Sinead is very grateful to be supported by the Marten Toonder Music Bursary from the Irish Arts Council for 2025.
To find out more, including the story of Sinéad's unconventional path to the podium....
2024/25 CONDUCTING PERFORMANCES
For Past Performances Please See Biography Page
use scroll bar to see performances
VIDEOS
Conducting, Project & Interview Videos
KEY INTERESTS AS A CONDUCTOR
THE CREATIVE CONDUCTOR BLOG...
As well as conducting, Sinead is constantly seeking new perspectives and connections outwards from classical music. For a selection of Sinead's recent writings please click the links below.
Sinead's blog The Creative Conductor on Substack relaunched on March 17th, 2025.
Read some posts below!
CONDUCTING COACHING...
Sinead coaches a select cohort of high level professional musicians and composers who want to develop their conducting and performance skills to an elite level.
She particularly enjoys working with established professional orchestral musicians, enabling them to develop their conducting skills, and rediscover their individual musical voice and perspective.
COMPOSER:
CONDUCTING COACHING
ORCHESTRAL MUSICIANS: CONDUCTING COACHING
As a composer...
It can be difficult to separate yourself from your work, to take a step back and think about it objectively.
In our sessions we look at preparing a piece by Schoenberg and Stravinsky as a conductor. You then take these skills, apply them to your own work, and we discuss possible changes as a result - musical, gestural, notational etc.
As a professional orchestral musician...
Building on your individual elite level instrumental and chamber music skills, we work together to develop a conducting technique that works in service of the music. We also work on the orchestral repertoire, with your instrument, to explore different nuances and possibilities for narrative and structure, developing the creative mindset you need to really bring music to life with an orchestra. You will develop your score reading skills at the piano, and deepen your critical listening skills through comparative recordings, honing your ears for the podium.
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