Born in Toronto and based out of New York City, Sean Mayes enjoys an active and varied career internationally as a conductor, music director, orchestrator, arranger, composer, author, and educator. His work spans numerous musical styles in the world’s largest theatres and concert halls, between Broadway, theatre, opera, classical and orchestral pops.
In the Broadway community, Mr. Mayes is the Worldwide Music Supervisor for Disney’s THE LION KING, and Music Supervisor & Co-Orchestrator for ALI: The Musical; composed by American classical conductor Teddy Abrams & rap legend Q-Tip. Mr. Mayes is also Music Director for Broadway luminary André De Shields.
Previous Broadway credits include time as a Conductor for two Tony Award®-winning productions, MJ: The Musical and HADESTOWN. Mr. Mayes is a frequent music director & orchestrator of numerous engagements within the Broadway community.
As a guest conductor, recent engagements include the American Pops Orchestra in Black Broadway: A Proud History, a Limitless Future on PBS, featuring a select star line up of Broadway’s most established Black performers. He was also Conductor & Co-Orchestrator of the world premiere of The Voice of Whitney: A Symphonic Celebration at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Philharmonic, a brand-new concert tribute featuring the original master recordings of Whitney Houston’s vocals set to new orchestrations. It was produced in collaboration with the Estate of Whitney Houston, Park Avenue Artists, and Primary Wave Music.
Sean Mayes has served as a Conductor and Music Supervisor for productions across the globe. In Fall 2022, he was the Music Director & Conductor of the new musical MANDELA, inspired by the life of Nelson Mandela and co-produced by the Mandela family at the Young Vic Theatre in London, UK. Additional recent credits include serving as Music Supervisor for the International Finnish Premiere of the musical COME FROM AWAY.
At home in Canada, Mayes was Music Director & Conductor of the all-Canadian premiere of THE COLOR PURPLE in 2019, for which he was awarded the 2020 Merritt Award for Outstanding Musical Direction.
As a Music Supervisor, recent credits include BLACK HERSTORY x AFROPUNK at Lincoln Center, an immersive two-day joint event featuring an all-star lineup of Black musical talent; as well as the premiere of RENT: In Concert at the Kennedy Center, a new orchestral concert production of the hit musical performed with permission from the Jonathan Larson Estate.
As a composer, orchestrator, and arranger, Mayes’ work is frequently performed in venues across North America & Europe. For Broadway luminary André De Shields, Mr. Mayes was Music Director, Orchestrator & Arranger for An Evening With André De Shields with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2021. His Merritt Award-winning compositions were featured in the 2023 Canadian national tour of FALL ON YOUR KNEES, the anticipated stage adaptation of the ground-breaking Canadian novel by author Ann-Marie MacDonald. Mayes also served as Music Supervisor on the tour which visited Canadian Stage (Toronto), Neptune Theatre (Halifax), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Grand Theatre (London, Ontario). His compositions were also heard in the Mainstage production of KING LEAR in the 2023 season of the Stratford Festival.
Equally at ease in the classical world, he composed and orchestrated the opera Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White alongside Canadian multidisciplinary artist HAUI. It made its world premiere at the Canadian Opera Company in the 2023/2024 season, for which Mr. Mayes also served as Conductor.
As an author and scholar, Mayes explores representation and systemic inequities in theatre and the arts. His published work includes Reframing the Musical, from Palgrave Macmillan, which examines the role of Black music directors and the underrepresentation of artists of color on Broadway, and An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre, published by Bloomsbury, which traces the contributions of Black practitioners throughout the history of British musical theatre. The latter was celebrated with a concert at Wigmore Hall in London in 2021. His third book, Conversations in Color: Exploring North American Musical Theatre, featuring interviews with theatre industry leaders of color, was published by Bloomsbury in November 2023.
Mr. Mayes is a member of the Recording Academy, and holds degrees in music, education, and music direction from McGill University and the University of Surrey, UK.
2026-2027
