Splitting his time between Toronto and New York City, Sean Mayes has built an international career as a conductor, music director, orchestrator, arranger, composer, author and educator whose work bridges continents and musical styles and promotes inclusiveness.
With credits that span opera, classical and pops as well as Tony–winning musicals on Broadway, the U.K. native brings a rare blend of versatility and sophistication to every performance.
See for yourself when you attend Defying Gravity: Blockbuster Broadway, which Mayes will conduct for Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday, January 10, in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center. Showtimes will be 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.
A graduate of McGill University in Canada and the University of Surrey in England, Mayes holds degrees in music, education and music direction. Across his career, he has collaborated with major orchestras and theater companies, earning a reputation for his deep musicality and his ability to bring out the emotional core of every score.
For Blockbuster Broadway, Mayes has created an exhilarating evening that will celebrate the best of musical theater and feature showstoppers culled from golden-age classics and such modern megahits as Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago and The Lion King. In addition to the orchestra, the show will feature three vocalists.
Mayes has had a career filled with accomplishments, among them conducting Hadestown and MJ: The Musical on Broadway. In the realm of opera and classical music, he co-composed, orchestrated and conducted Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White for the Canadian Opera Company.
A champion for diversity, Mayes founded and is the artistic director of “Pops of Color,” the new resident Pops orchestra of the historic Town Hall in New York City. The ensemble is composed entirely of musicians of color and focuses its repertoire exclusively on artists of color who have contributed to popular music.
He is also the author of three books about representation in the arts, including An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre: 1900–1950 and Conversations in Color: Exploring North American Musical Theatre.
Mayes describes his career goal as “using music to teach and to inspire through teaching.” He views conducting as “a musical version of utilizing leadership to inspire others to do their best and create the best they can create.”
Dr. Phillips Center is located at 445 South Magnolia Avenue, Orlando. For more information, visit call 407.358.6603 or drphillipscenter.org.
