Reich – The Desert Music

A special multimedia collaboration for the El Paso Symphony’s 75th anniversary season. Conceived by Ioannides for El Paso Symphony and El Paso Chorale, Sarah directed a 50-minute film, produced by El Paso native Zach Passero, that celebrates the local desert landscape, including White Sands, to accompany Steve Reich’s “The Desert Music” for orchestra and amplified voices.

The film shot beautiful footage of the desert, both day and night, as well as a clip of the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a reminder White Sands was used as a testing base for the missiles. The film creates a poignant look at both the natural beauty of the desert and juxtaposes the conflicts that lie within it on human intervention; the desert space was used to create weapons of mass destruction.

Water Passion

Tan Dun’s Water Passion After St. Matthew  is a colossal feast for ears and ears.  

“Ever sure of the work’s choreography and architecture, the director guided securely and seamlessly to the very end, which saw all performers uplit with gold as they silently plunged hands into the water and let it fall.”

​The first conductor selected by Tan Dun to conduct his Water Passion After St. Matthew at the Perth International Arts Festival and the Metamorphosis Festival in Athens in 2016, Ioannides has led many operas, ballets and conducted at festivals worldwide, including the European premiere of Stephen Paulus’ The Woodlanders in Oxford, British Youth Opera, Curtis Opera Theatre, Tacoma Opera & Ballet and Spoleto Festival.

While assistant conductor to Tan Dun she conducted Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Flemish Radio Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Since, Ioannides has directed numerous performances of Water Passion internationally including Symphony Tacoma, Perth International Festival & Athens Metamorphosis. She has been involved with the project from the world premier in Stuttgart as choir director of Berlin’s RIAS Kammerchor and has been conductor, production director for multiple performances worldwide.

“A fine performance under the sure hand of conductor Sarah Ioannides.”   The Australian

Longer Review on the page with more: ‘Water Passion’ proves the Tacoma Symphony’s musical chops and vitality

By Rosemary Ponnekanti, Tacoma Tribune

 “ Tacoma has proven that not only does it have the chops to do a major contemporary classical work, it’s got the audience to appreciate it. A host of forces, from conductor Sarah Ioannides to the Tacoma Symphony Chorus to soloists, stage crew and sponsors came together Sunday afternoon at the Pantages Theater to perform Tan Dun’s epic “Water Passion.” The theatrical oratorio was inspired by St. Matthew and Bach, but takes both into new realms of tonality and spirituality…..

Holding all these forces together, along with the dramatic lighting (red for blood, gold for rebirth) and amplified sounds was Ioannides, whose personal connection to Tan Dun made the piece possible in the first place. “

Holst – The Planets

Ioannides and Roberto Gutierrez drew on NASA live-action footage, computer-generated animation and still photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to fashion a 52 minute video of this fascinating imagery.

“a mesmerizing complement to Holst’s music…a performance and presentation that dripped with the sense of awe and wonder that space, the final frontier, tends to evoke in us all.”
– El Paso Times

Glennie & Portraits

Evelyn Glennie

World premiere of the percussion concerto, Portraits of Immortal Love by Sean O’Boyle written for Symphony Tacoma and Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra for percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

“‘Portraits of Immortal Love’ constantly evolves into emotional sound stories depicting the power of love of all those involved in World War 1. Although this piece is a percussion concerto, the composer writes beautifully for the orchestra, allowing everything and everyone to shine thus creating air and balance in his music. The writing for percussion has great balance between exciting virtuosity and sheer beauty.” ~Dame Evelyn Glennie

“…as a showcase of percussion colors – spooky waterphone, celestial bowed crotales, inhuman shell chimes – and as an emotional tribute to the love, courage and sacrifice of those who lived through World War I, it’s both brilliant and heartfelt.” ~Rosemary Ponnekanti, Tacoma New Tribune

artist, Jillian Hoffman

Young Artists Run Riot

In celebration of the 100^th Anniversary of the Rite of Spring, Ioannides launched a unique art & dance project for Spartanburg County together with Spartanburg Philharmonic’s performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

In a project led by Sarah Ioannides, several hundred works of art were created by teenage students throughout the Spartanburg County. The captivating artworks were exhibited at the Spartanburg Chapman Cultural Center in a juried art show, and will also be seen in public locations in the city’s center. Final participants in these exhibits include works from schools in the county including Landrum High School, Chapman High School, Boiling Springs High School, Chesnee High School, Spartanburg High School and Spartanburg High Freshman Academy and homeschoolers.

The purpose of this project was to introduce students to a work that conjures up great imagery, through its extraordinary sound world and captivating rhythms. As a work with primeval drama at its peak expressed without unspoken word, its power is to overpower. The expression is the very heart and soul of the earth, which encapsulates both life and destruction, and a work that has great capacity for healing too.