Sean Michael O’Boyle AM

New York-based Sean O’Boyle is a professional musician with a lifetime experience as a performer, conductor, composer, producer and musical director. Working with the ABC, Sean has made more than 100 CD recordings in many genres with leading musicians and arts companies.

Sean has also conducted recordings and concerts with many leading Australian and international orchestras. His compositions have been performed and/or recorded by all the major Australian orchestras; by European orchestras including Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra and by North American orchestras including the Dallas, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Sean is best known for some of the most exciting orchestral collaborations to link contemporary artists with the great traditions of the symphony orchestra. He is somewhat of an autodidact, as he did not formally train in his chosen field, but rather gleaned experiences and life-long learning with his enquiring mind and dogged determination.

After attending BGS from 1976 to 1978, he left at the end of Year 9 to join the Australian Army Band Corps and then, after 10 years, joined Victoria Police to explore new possibilities with the Victorian Police Bands. Sean was part of the team responsible for establishing the popular police performance band, Code One.

After working in the 1990s as the Music Director for Warner Bros responsible for all the music at the Queensland theme parks, Sean began a long collaboration with the Australian Symphony Orchestra network as conductor, composer and arranger.

In 2000, Sean composed ABC’s Olympic theme for use during the Sydney Games, and he also performed for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2004 Athens Olympics. In 2002, Sean was featured at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) where his compositions were performed for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2009 Sean wrote and arranged music for the Ashes cricket series. 

Sean has a keen interest in the music of indigenous Australians and in 2000 this took him to the Gulf of Carpentaria producing The Gulf Song, a collaborative performance piece with local indigenous children. He also collaborated with didgeridoo maestro, William Barton, in composing his Concerto for Didgeridoo and Orchestra. This concerto was ranked 32 in the ABC Classic FM, Classic 100 Concertos and 87 in the 2011 ABC Classic 100 20th Century.