Internationally, Sarah has conducted on six continents with orchestras including the Tonkünstler, the Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre Nationale de Lyon, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, the Flemish Radio, Bilbao Symphony, and some of the world’s greatest National Youth Orchestras, including the South African National Youth Orchestra, Andalusian Youth Orchestra and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra.

The 22/23 Season includes conducting debuts with the Sarasota Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Hamilton Philharmonic, Santa Fe Pro Music and the Vermont Symphony. She also leads the Roanoke Symphony, National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, National Youth Orchestra of USA, and the BachFest in Chelan. Ioannides also returns to conduct at the Jacobs School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Sarah began her career with the Cincinnati Symphony, appointed Ioannides as the first woman appointed to a full-time conducting position and she has since conducted extensivelty in the United States including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Tulsa and the Toledo Symphony.

A great advocate for new music, Sarah has conducted and curated over 60 World, North American and European orchestral premiers, recorded world premieres with Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Malmö Symphony and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She has produced many original videos for live orchestral multimedia performances and digital productions and was previously an assistant, production coordination with composer/conductor Tan Dun.

As Music Director her orchestras have received prestigious awards including ArtWorks grants for community projects, commissioning music and films spotlighting current issues. Equally at home with opera and choral repertoire, she has led many opera productions and conducted at festivals worldwide, including the European premiere of Stephen Paulus’ The Woodlanders, and Australian & Greek premieres of Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St. Matthew.

Passionate about education, Sarah is the Founding Artistic Director of Cascade Conducting & Composing, now in its 6th year, which supports diversity on the podium through generous scholarships. Ioannides guest conducts conservatory orchestras such as Yale University, the Jacobs School of Music, CCPA and the Curtis Institute of Music. She is internationally sought after to coach women conductors from Australia to Canada. Appearing as key-note speaker and serving on numerous advisory boards, she has appeared multiple times as a panelist for the US Government’s National Endowment for the Arts.

Attending the Oxford University on an Instrumental Scholarship and The Juilliard School, she earnt two Master’s degrees. After receiving an Advanced Certificate in Conducting from the Guildhall School of Music, Sarah came to the USA as a Fulbright Scholar and graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music where she studied and was Assistant to the late Otto-Werner Mueller.

Married to Scott Hartman, renowned trombonist, they have three children, Elsa and Karl (twins), and Audrey. An avid long-distance runner Sarah won “first place woman” in Tacoma’s The Defiance (30k) in 2021 and qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2022 with an average pace of 8:19.