Sarah Ioannides

As a music director and guest conductor who is committed to collaboration, innovation and education, Sarah Ioannides invigorates programming and inspires audiences. Praised by the New York Times for her “unquestionable strength and authority”, she is Music Director of Washington State’s Symphony Tacoma. While centered in the USA, her conducting career has taken her to six continents. She previously served as music director of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra in Texas and the Spartanburg Philharmonic in South Carolina. Sarah Ioannides was the first woman to hold a full-time position as a conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to her Symphony Tacoma seasons, her North American schedule features appearances with Calgary Philharmonic, the Florida Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, San Antonio Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra and Santa Fe Pro Musica. The programming ranges wide – from Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Brahms, Dvořák, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Bartók and Korngold to re-emerging composers like Louise Farrenc, Florence Price, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Joseph Boulogne, and contemporary works by Aaron J Kernis, Valerie Coleman, Bernard Roumain, Nick DiBerardino and Jesse Montgomery.

Beyond North America, Sarah Ioannides’ past and current engagements include the Bilbao Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Malmö Symphony, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Symphony.

She also makes significant contributions to the field of education with Cascade Conducting & Composing as founding artistic director and as Resident Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra- USA in 2023. A sought after guest speaker, Sarah Ioannides sits on numerous advisory boards and has served as both panelist of the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) for the US Government and delegate at the World Culture Summit in Abu-Dhabi. In 2022 she spoke at the DSO’s Women in Classical Music Symposium and will return for the 2024 conference. In June 2023 was panelist at ‘Bridges to the Future’, and at the conference of the League of American Orchestras.