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Séamus Crimmins - Executive Director, RTÉ Performing Groups

Séamus Crimmins was appointed Executive Director, RTÉ Performing Groups, in 2007. RTÉ’s performing groups include RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and RTÉ Cór na nÓg – over 350 performers in all. His twin passions for music and broadcasting have resulted in him holding several other key positions in RTÉ: he has served as Senior Music Producer, Commissioning Editor and, most notably, as the first Head of RTÉ lyric fm.

Séamus grew up on Newry, Co Down.  He took an honours music degree at The Queen’s University Belfast. Following further studies at the University of London Institute of Education he was accepted for conducting masterclasses with George Hurst and Janos Furst.

While Head of Music at the Abbey Grammar School, Newry, he resuscitated Newry Choral Union in the late 1970s and having moved to Dublin in 1981 he founded Dun Laoghaire Choral Society the following year. Conducting engagements include the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Cecilia. Séamus conducted a string of music theatre productions at the Olympia Theatre, including West Side Story, and the mid-1990s he achieved international critical attention for a series of Handel operas which he conducted in London, New York, Melbourne, Lisbon, Brno, Prague, Oporto, Buxton and Salisbury.