ISAAC HAYWARD
CONDUCTOR, MUSIC DIRECTOR, ARRANGER
ABOUT
Isaac Hayward is an Australian-born, award-winning music director, conductor and arranger who has worked on a wide range of projects internationally. He currently serves at the music director and conductor of the North American tour of The Phantom of the Opera and is a 2026 Carlos Miguel Prieto Conducting Fellow.
His credits include Opera Australia, New Zealand, National Theatre London, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, and Broadway. Isaac has also appeared with orchestras including Auckland Philharmonia, Christchurch Symphony, Perth Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Orchestra Victoria, Erie Philharmonic and Albany Symphony. His arrangements have been played around the world by ensembles such as Sydney Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Chicago Symphony and on stages such as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
He is the recipient of a Helpmann Award, a Sydney Theatre Award, a Mike Walsh Major Fellowship, the Rob Guest Endowment Musician Award, and was a finalist in the 2024 Mendelssohn International Conducting Competition. In his spare time, he serves as the artistic director of Hell’s Kitchen Laboratory Orchestra, in which professional musicians play their secondary instruments.
REVIEWS
Much is written about the absence of the development path for new musicals in Australia, making young musical director Isaac Hayward’s world class achievements in orchestrations, arrangement and additional music all the more extraordinary. Hayward’s work is heard at its very best thanks to the vivid sound design of Michael Waters.
The exacting, sympathetic conductor coaxed tenderness, danger, fear ... from the band ... [stoking] wild grooves in the pit, driving incisive, spiky articulation to conjure the necessary boiling riffs and pizzazz. Hayward’s engagement was so intense, no-one would have batted an eyelid if he’d stormed the stage and taken the place of one of the triple-threat cast.
It's impossible to talk about The Pirates of Penzance without talking about the breathtaking music, and under the watchful eye of Isaac Hayward there was no way it was not going to be perfect. This 23-piece band ... was pitch perfect from the first note of the overture to the last beat of the bows... Hayward has shaped these vocals into something ethereal, every note was calculated and thought out making the music absolutely perfect throughout the entire show.
