Karen Ní Bhroin

With a career that spans both sides of the Atlantic and consistently draws attention, Karen Ní Bhroin has established herself as one of Ireland’s foremost young conductors. This season, Karen continues her work in the opera field assisting English National Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Elixir of Love. On the concert podium, she conducts the Royal Albert Hall’s Christmas concert with the BBC Concert Orchestra presented by Sandi Toksvig, and continues to build her relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra taking part in the opening night of their season, along with a number of education projects. She is an award recipient of the prestigious Taki Alsop Fellowship for 2024, following two years of mentorship under the esteemed Marin Alsop.

Last season, Karen made her debut with the London Symphony Orchestra and returned to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Manchester Camerata. At home, she was the Music Director for a production of Breathwork with Irish National Opera, conducted the Irish Chamber Orchestra with soprano Ailish Tynan and joined the RTE Concert Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Over the summer, she appeared at Bregenz Festival, conducting the World Premiere of Éna Brennan’s Hold Your Breath directed by David Pountney. She also conducted one of their music and poetry evenings, reviewed at Kutlurzeitschrift.at: “The premiere of Marcus Nigsch’s “Map of a Crime” was a complete success… The threads converged with the very accomplished conductor Karen Ní Bhroin.”

Highlights from previous seasons include her return to the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland for a concert broadcast live on RTÉ, following her initial debut with the orchestra in 2017, and her debut with the TRNC Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Cyprus. Other notable engagements include her first performances with the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, and the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast. She also conducted the world premiere of the opera Galaxies in Her Eyes by Mark Lanz Weiser. In 2019, Karen was appointed Assistant Director of the Akron Symphony Chorus in Ohio, and in 2020, she made her debut with the Akron Symphony Orchestra.

Assisting some of the best conductors in the world today, Karen has worked closely with JoAnn Falletta, Nathalie Stutzmann and Thomas Wilkins. She has also been mentored by Marin Alsop, Timothy Redmond and Neil Thomson. Karen has worked as Assistant Conductor at National Music Festival USA with conductor Richard Rosenberg (2019), attended Dartington International Summer School Advanced Conducting programme (2019) and was a Britten-Pears Young Artist at Snape Maltings, UK (2018). During 2021, Karen was part of the inaugural conducting academy at National Orchestral Institute, where she was a fellow with Marin Alsop. During 2022, Ní Bhroin received an artists bursary for a French language residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, an emerging artist music bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland.

Creator of the podcast ‘And Other Duties, The Life of the Assistant Conductor’ and And Other Duties, Conducting Courses, Karen is on a mission to change conducting education: to teach the things that are not usually taught and to create a forum for honest conversations and communication. They have hosted successful courses in Dublin, Manchester and Macedonia covering a wide range of skills.

Having studied at home in Ireland as Conductor in Training from 2016-2018, Karen worked closely with the National Symphony Orchestra and National Philharmonic Choir. She subsequently moved to the USA, where she held the position of Assistant Conductor of North Carolina’s Winston-Salem Symphony, Music Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony Youth Orchestras Program and Associate Conductor and Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts from 2020-2022. A music education graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she earned her Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting at Kent State University, Ohio, where she studied with Dr. Jungho Kim as his Graduate Assistant Conductor.

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