Sinead Hayes

Irish orchestral conductor Sinead Hayes is emerging as one of Ireland’s leading interpreters of contemporary music and opera, with a particular interest in the work of emerging and established Irish composers. She is a Britten Pears Young Artist 23/24, participating in The Conductor as Dramaturg course run by the Royal Opera House and Britten Pears Arts, with conductors Sian Edwards & Kanako Abe. From January 2024 she is a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Women’s Conducting Excel Programme run with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

The 2023/24 season is her tenth as conductor of the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble (HRSE) in Belfast, and her third season as conductor of the Royal Irish Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. In February 2022 she was appointed principal guest conductor of Galway’s professional orchestra The Luminosa String Orchestra. 

She has worked with all the major professional orchestras in Ireland including the Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra & National Symphony Orchestra. In opera she has conducted productions for Northern Ireland Opera, Irish National Opera and Opera Collective Ireland. 

She completed her MMus in conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music and her BMus in violin and composition at City University, London. Sinead also participated in masterclasses with Johannes Schlaefli, Sylvain Cambreling & Sir Roger Norrington among others. In 2014 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. 

Sinead’s award winning education work has been funded by the Irish Arts Council (Agility Award & Artist Bursary) and the Galway County Arts Office, and includes two projects for youth string orchestras fusing classical and Irish traditional music “The Baroque Session” and “Carolan’s Rambles” 

Sinead divides her time between Galway, Belfast and London, and is also active as a violinist, performing with various chamber ensembles.

www.sineadhayes.net