Sean Doyle

Sean Doyle is a composer, conductor, performer, and educator. He writes music for the concert stage, collaborative works for theater and dance, songs that live on record, and music for commercial media.

His work Letters from Zelda for soprano and chamber orchestra was described by the Washington Post as a “vivid, eventful score… brilliantly written, full of the anything-goes spirit of the Jazz Age”. Recent projects include music for a multimedia dance installation titled "already there" premiered at the Kennedy Center, a new work for vocal quartet and mixed choir premiered by the American University Chamber Singers on their international tour to Greece, and a concert-length song cycle titled Detachment, premiered in May 2022 by Baltimore-based chamber group Pique Collective. Sean’s music has been performed internationally and featured on concert series and festivals including June In Buffalo, the Parma Music Festival (NH), and New Music Gathering. Among his collaborators are the Bowling Green New Music Ensemble, the Maryland Choral Society, the Great Noise Ensemble (Washington, DC), Lunar Ensemble, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, the ANA Trio (Buffalo, NY), and the Choir of St. David’s Church, Roland Park, MD. His music has also been featured in segments on VICE News Tonight.

From 2015 to 2022 he served on the full-time faculty of American University (Washington, DC), where he also served as director of the Music Program. Prior to this, he taught in the composition and theory areas at the State University of New York at Fredonia. In addition to offering private instruction in composition, orchestration, and songwriting, Sean’s classroom teaching ranges from theory, ear training and musicianship to seminars on analysis, choral arranging, the Music of Britten, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Sondheim, and the 21st century indie classical scene. He has presented guest lectures and workshops across the country.

Sean also enjoys a varied career as a performer, across wide-ranging artistic interests.  Trained as a singer from a young age, he has performed in numerous choirs and vocal ensembles, including national and international tours with the Fredonia Chamber Singers. He served both as singer and choirmaster for a landmark performance of Louis Andriessen's De Materie with Great Noise Ensemble, performed in the presence of the composer at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

As a conductor, he has helmed performances by instrumental and vocal ensembles, as well as serving as musical director for productions of musicals, dance, opera scenes, and incidental music for straight plays–repertoire spanning from standards to premieres. From 2012-2015 he was associated with Trinity Episcopal Church in Fredonia, NY as a chorister and choir director. Equally at home in pop songwriting, his activity as a multi-instrumentalist finds him playing guitars, bass, and keyboards both live and in the studio.

​In 2023, Sean led the founding of ELSEWAYS MEDIA (www.elsewaysmedia.com), gathering a group of passionate, versatile composers seeking to support and advocate for their work in a fresh, authentic way.

Sean earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Peabody Institute (Johns Hopkins University), studying with Kevin Puts, and Bachelor of Music & Master of Music degrees from the SUNY Fredonia, where he studied with Donald Bohlen.

Originally hailing from Long Island, NY, Sean currently lives and works in Los Angeles.