Cian McCarthy

Cian McCarthy’s claim to fame may be that he was once the youngest conductor on Broadway, but his future is likely to hold many more accolades. This composer, conductor, music director, and pianist has had a hand in some of the most successful, award-winning Broadway shows of the past decade, including In the Heights, The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q, and Hamilton.

Growing up in Cork, Ireland, McCarthy loved playing piano, competing in and winning several local competitions. He also gained conducting experience in local musical theater productions. But it was when he discovered his love of jazz and subsequently got a scholarship to Berklee that his career began to take a more defined shape. While at Berklee, he was able to study with renowned talents like George Monseur, Greg Hopkins, Vuk Kulenovic, and Yakov Gubanov, and he was the recipient of the Jazz Piano Award.

After graduating, McCarthy moved to New York City, and his Broadway career took off shortly thereafter. In addition to working as the music director on The Book of Mormon, some of his other recent projects include work on Invisible Thread at the Second Stage Theatre, and his latest project, composing the score and supervising the music for the movie Something Like Summer, an adaptation of Jay Bell’s bestseller. He has worked and performed in multiple well-known venues and at festivals in the United States and Ireland, including the Blue Note in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Guinness Jazz Festival in Cork.