IYCs Team

Bernie Sherlock is a leading choral conductor who has won conducting prizes in Finland, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia and Ireland. Her ongoing work as an international adjudicator and director of choral workshops has taken her around Europe and to the US, Canada and China. She is the representative for Ireland on the World Choir Council.

Bernie trained under Ildikó Herboly Kocsár and Peter Erdei in Hungary, and with Gerhard Markson in Dublin. A music graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she earned Masters (NUI Maynooth) and Doctorate (RIAM/DCU) degrees in conducting.

Bernie is the founder-conductor of New Dublin Voices, her international award-winning chamber choir. As well as its strong presence in performance at home in Ireland, the choir has come first at elite European competitions including Northern Ireland (Derry 2019), Hungary (Debrecen 2018 and Budapest 2009), Latvia (2017), Ireland (Cork 2015), Italy (Arezzo 2013), and Belgium (2011).

Bernie is Artistic Director of the Irish Youth Choirs. For twelve years she directed the annual Sing Ireland International Choral Conducting Summer School at the University of Limerick.

For 2021 she is co-conductor of EuroChoir. Bernie is a Lecturer in Music at the TU Dublin Conservatoire where she is also director of the TU Chamber Choir and Youth Choir.

Patrick Barrett is an Irish conductor specialising in choral music and opera. He is currently Chorus Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Junior Choruses, University of Reading Chamber Choir and Artistic Director of the award winning choir - Farnham Youth Choir. He also regularly works with the Royal Opera House Youth Opera Company and the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. Previous roles include Guest Chorus Master for the CBSO Children’s Chorus under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Conductor of the University of Birmingham's Women’s Choir and Brockham Choral Society.

Patrick studied Music Education at Trinity College Dublin and TU including additional study at the Kodaly Institute in Hungary as part of the Erasmus programme. In 2015, he completed an MMus in Choral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under Neil Ferris and Sarah Tenant-Flowers.