Board of Directors

A constant on the international stage, Virginia Kerr’s career includes celebrated performances on the stages of the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls and has taken her as far afield as Russia, Asia, Mexico and North and South America.

Alongside a busy international performing career, Virginia Kerr is Professor of Voice at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and is on the vocal faculty of the National University of Ireland Maynooth. A keen interest in the workings of the psyche of musicians and performers led Virginia to pursue a Master of Science degree in psychotherapy with an emphasis on Musical Performance Anxiety. Virginia specialises in working with performers who suffer with performance anxiety and she incorporates this work into her performance psychology lecture series at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in addition to working privately at her private psychotherapy practice in Dublin.

Conor has extensive executive management experience in the multinational sector and also runs his own company, Comprend Associates, which works with organisations about how they need to think about, and prepare for, the sustainability challenges that are imminent. He has board experience in Ireland and the UK in both the private and non-profit sectors.

His personal interests include listening to classical music, especially Romantic and opera. Living in Limerick, he also likes cruising slowly on the River Shannon.

Grace Bergin is a conductor and strategy consultant with professional experience spanning both music and business. A graduate of the MTU Cork School of Music and the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, she also holds business and management degrees from Ireland and the USA.

As a conductor, Grace has extensive experience across choral and operatic music and currently conducts Alma, a chamber choir based in Cork City. As a soprano, she has performed with ensembles including Anúna, the Irish Youth Chamber Choir, The Mornington Singers, and as a Lay Vicar in Christ Church Cathedral. She has worked as a strategy consultant since 2021 in both New York and in Ireland, leading large-scale transformation and strategic initiatives.

Sophie is an Associate Lecturer in Musicianship at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She has a BA(Mod) in Music from Trinity College Dublin and a MSc in Performance Science from the Royal College of Music, London. Sophie was awarded her PhD from the University of Limerick in 2021.

Her doctoral research investigated the effects of group singing on the health and wellbeing of people living with dementia and their family carers. Sophie has worked as a musician in healthcare since 2015 and runs the Soothing Sounds music programme at Tallaght University Hospital.

Lisa McGrath is Chief Transformation Officer for Deloitte Ireland where she is responsible for the firm's Transformation,  IT and  Real Estate & Workplace Solutions teams. Prior to this role, Lisa was part of Deloitte's Consulting practice, advising clients on areas such as  business transformation, operational excellence, large-scale engagement management, stakeholder management, talent management, operating model design, process improvement and programme leadership.

In her free team,  Lisa enjoys choral singing, having sung with a wide variety of different choirs over the years.  

Amy Ryan is a conductor, lecturer and performer based in Dublin, Ireland. She currently lectures at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and previously at Trinity College Dublin. Artistic Director of UCD Philharmonic Choir since 2014, she has also appeared as Guest Conductor with the UCD Symphony Orchestra on multiple occasions, and taught conducting to undergraduate students at UCD.

She recently contributed a chapter to the book Perspectives on Conducting for Routledge press, in which she draws on her practice with UCD Philharmonic Choir.  Amy also conducts the choir of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Mount St., and the Irish language upper voice choir, Cór Duibhlinne. As a conductor, Amy founded Cuore Chamber Choir, leading them to first prizes at all the major choral competitions in Ireland and more recently to a number of prizes at Tallinn International Choral Festival, 2023. As conductor of Jubilate Choir, Amy presented the Irish premiere of Graun’s 18th century passion oratorio, Der Tod Jesu, along with performances of other symphonic choral works. Previously, she has also worked with Irish National Opera, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival,  Irish Youth Choir and St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral Girls’ Choir. Amy regularly sings with the choir of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin and has performed throughout Europe and the United States as a cellist, flautist and choral singer.

Having completed a BMus at MTU Cork School of Music, she completed her training at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy of Music, Hungary, earning both a Master’s degree in Kodály Music Pedagogy and an Advanced Diploma in Choral Conducting with distinctions, studying under Péter Erdei and Dr László Nemes.  Amy was Chairperson of Kodály Ireland from 2018-2022  and was appointed to the board of Sing Ireland in December 2022.