Peter Joyce

Peter Joyce is an Irish musician, conductor and composer whose musical identity has been strongly developed by his early experiences with jazz, music theory, his vigorous training in Viennese Classicism and Modernism and his ongoing passion for contemporary music and experimental as well as traditional musical theatre. His artistic identity is as much influenced by the landscapes and great modernist literature of his native country as it is by the psychoanalytic and musical innovations of his adopted home Vienna.

b. 1990

from Galway, Ireland

lives in Vienna Austria

After his first important musical experiences at a young age playing the saxophone with the Black Magic Big Band, Peter began to study clarinet and saxophone with Ciaran Wilde, and later clarinet with Fintan Sutton at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He is a music graduate of Trinity College Dublin where he began composing, arranging and conducting, later studying conducting with Dr. Geoffrey Spratt at the CIT Cork School of Music. Peter continued his musical education by studying conducting with Mark Stringer, and composition with Detlev Müller-Siemens at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and has capped it off in masterclasses with Peter Eötvös, Marin Alsop, Sian Edwards, Salvatore Sciarrino and Stefano Gervasoni among many others.

Following an already successful career as a freelance performer throughout Europe, he has since committed himself to composition and conducting, but not before gaining vast performing experience with groups and artists such as the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, The National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Orchestra of the Baden State Theater, Divertimento Viennese, the Webern Kammerphilharmonie, Max Brand Ensemble, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Buddy Greco, Imelda May, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Sinead O'Connor, Hozier, Nathan Carter and Booka Brass Band among many others.

Trinity College Dublin

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

Accademia Musicale Chigiana

Peter Eötvös
Foundation

Winner of the 1st Prize and Orchestra Prize of the 2023 Irish National “Feis Ceoil” Conducting Competition, Peter Joyce has worked in symphonic, musical theatre, opera and choral settings including his debut in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein with the Akademische Philharmonie Vienna, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Sofia National Philharmonic, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, Pro-Arte Orchestra Vienna, Orchestra of the Technical University Vienna, Max Brand Ensemble, Ensemble Ars Nova, the Webern Ensemble and the Webern Chamber Choir, and with the ORF as a musical assistant for live broadcasts from the Vienna State Opera. In 2024 Peter will make debuts with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra and Szolnok Symphony Orchestra.

A champion of new music, Peter has performed and conducted premieres of many new works by Irish and international composers. As a composer Peter's own works have been performed throughout Europe by groups such as the Arditti Quartet, Quartetto Prometeo, the Kandinsky Quartet, the Webern Ensemble, Platypus Ensemble and at festivals such as Wien Modern. In 2020 he was the winner of the Feis Ceoil IMRO Composition Award.

Peter is the founder and conductor of the Esker Festival Orchestra, Ireland's longest established, and one of Europe's most exciting orchestras for emerging young professional musicians with whom he just celebrated their 10th anniversary with lauded performances of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony.

Founder and director of the Esker Festival Orchestra