Sinead Hayes

Irish orchestral conductor Sinead Hayes has forged a career conducting symphonic and opera repertoire, with strong experience in contemporary music and a particular interest in the work of established and emerging Irish composers. The 2023/24 season is her 10th as conductor of the Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble (HRSE) in Belfast with whom she has premiered over 60 new works by Irish and international composers.

She is in her third 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 Programme 2024-26, working with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Newcastle.

Sinead is a Britten Pears Young Artist 2023/24, and recently participated in the Royal Opera House/Britten Pears Conductor as Dramaturg International Conductor’s course in August 2023 with Sian Edwards & Kanako Abe. In February 2022 Sinead was appointed principal guest conductor of Galway's Luminosa Orchestra.

In May 2024 Sinead will conduct Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble in a showcase concert at Classical Next, Berlin in a programme she devised called Peaceline Perspectives: Voices from a Divided City interweaving music from 3 Northern Irish composers with sound pieces created in collaboration with composers from SARC: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music.

Last season she made her debut with Wexford Sinfonia and Limerick Philharmonic, securing immediate reinvitations for this season. Following her debut with the Ulster Orchestra conducting 7 education concerts in 2019, she has returned to the orchestra for several projects, most recently returning to conduct a programme of works by Belfast composer Greg Caffrey, for CD release in May 2024.

Highlights of previous seasons include making her debut with the Irish Chamber Orchestra (Der Schauspieldirektor for Irish National Opera), return visits to Northern Ireland Opera to conduct productions of Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Greg Caffrey’s children’s opera The Chronic Identity Crisis of Pamplemousse, as well as working with Irish National Opera as assistant conductor and chorus master on Bartok: Bluebeard’s Castle, Dennehy: The Second Violinist, Verdi: Aida, Puccini: Madama Butterfly & Mozart die Zauberfloete. She also worked with Opera Collective Ireland and Crash Ensemble to conduct the world premiere performances of Raymond Deane's Opera Vagabones.

As well as being active as a violinist in chamber ensembles, Sinead 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. She is fascinated by the links between folk music and the orchestral canon, and draws on her folk music experience frequently when approaching the music she conducts.

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 chosen by the players of the Critical Orchestra Berlin, 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.