Amy Ryan is a musician and educator from Killarney, now based in Dublin. One of Ireland’s most accomplished choral and orchestral conductors, Amy has extensive experience working with a wide range of professional and amateur groups, and has established award-winning choral ensembles, including Cuore. Under her leadership, Cuore has gained national and international recognition, with acclaimed performances and competition successes. Her deep understanding of vocal artistry and interpretation ensures that every Cuore performance is both musically exceptional and emotionally compelling.
Amy currently lectures at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM, Ireland’s oldest conservatory), and previously at Trinity College Dublin (TCD, Ireland’s oldest university). She contributed a chapter to the book, Perspectives on Conducting, published by Routledge in June 2024.
She has taught conducting in TCD and in University College Dublin (UCD, Ireland’s largest university), where she also mentors an early-career Associate Conductor each year. Amy has also taught conducting on the Sing Ireland and Kodály Ireland international summer schools, and has been an external postgraduate conducting examiner for MTU Cork School of Music.
Artistic Director of UCD Philharmonic Choir since 2014, she has guested with the UCD Symphony Orchestra on multiple occasions, conducting concertos and symphonies, in addition to choral-orchestral works. Amy also conducts the professional choir of St. Stephen’s Church, Mount St., and the Irish language upper voice choir, Cór Duibhlinne.
As conductor of Jubilate Choir, Amy presented the Irish premiere of Graun’s 18th century passion oratorio, Der Tod Jesu, along with performances of other symphonic choral works. Previously she worked with the Irish Youth Choir and St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral Girls’ Choir. She founded Tallaght Hospital Choir, winning Workplace Choir of the Year. Amy is also in demand as an adjudicator, workshop facilitator, external examiner and guest conductor.
She has prepared choruses for Irish National Opera, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, North Dublin Opera, and Lyric Opera. She regularly deputises as a singer with the choir of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin and has performed throughout Europe and the United States as a cellist, flautist and choral singer.
Continuing professional development has included orchestral and choral conducting studies and masterclasses with Robert Houlihan, Alice Farnham, Volker Hempfling, David Lawrence and Simon Carrington. Amy studied vocal technique with Ghislaine Morgan, Catherine Redding, János Klézli and Áine nicGabhann.
Amy completed her formal studies at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy of Music Hungary, earning both a Master’s degree in Kodály Music Pedagogy (distinction) and an Advanced Diploma in Choral Conducting (distinction), studying under Péter Erdei and Dr László Nemes. She earned her Bachelor of Music at the Cork School of Music with first-class honours, which included conducting studies under Alan Cutts.
Amy was Chairperson of Kodály Ireland from 2018-2022, directing their annual summer course. She was appointed to the board of Sing Ireland in December 2022.