Sarah Ioannides is a Greek Cypriot-Scottish-Australian conductor. Her father, Ayis Ioannides, is a conductor and composer of Greek Cypriot ancestry. Her mother is of Scottish ancestry. Ioannides grew up in England and studied piano, horn and violin. She played in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She later earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Music from Somerville College, Oxford University. In 1996, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to study conducting. She was subsequently awarded a Presser Foundation Scholarship to study in St. Petersburg. Ioannides earned a Master of Music degree in conducting at the Juilliard School, where she received the Bruno Walter Scholarship and was assistant conductor to Otto-Werner Mueller. Ioannides has conducted several premieres and has collaborated with composers including Louis Andriessen, Richard Danielpour, Stephen Paulus, Steve Reich and Tan Dun; she served as assistant conductor on international tours with Tan Dun for four seasons. Ioannides has also held positions as assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. During her 2003–2004 season with the Cincinnati Symphony, she was one of two recipients of the Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor Chair by the Bruno Walter Foundation. In 2005, Ioannides became music director of both the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra. She concluded her tenure with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra in May 2011. In June 2009, her Spartanburg contract was extended through the 2011–2012 season, at which time the contract became an 'evergreen' contract that automatically renews each season by mutual agreement. In August 2015, the Spartanburg Philharmonic announced that Ioannides is to conclude her tenure with the orchestra after the 2016–2017 season. In January 2014, Symphony Tacoma announced the appointment of Ioannides as its first female music director, effective 1 July 2014, with an initial contract of 5 years. Ioannides conducted her first commercial recording with violinist Lara St. John and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, released in 2008, of works by John Corigliano, Matthew Hindson and Franz Liszt. Ioannides, who holds joint Australian and British citizenship, is married to Scott Hartman, a trombonist and professor at Yale University, since 2005. The couple have three children, a daughter, Audrey Rose, born 12 February 2008, and twins Elsa Isabel and Karl Alexander, born 22 April 2010.
