Bach, Beethoven and Brahms flowed from the record player as three-year-old Sarah Ioannides amused herself for hours by connecting the music to pictures of violins, flutes and pianos. “My mother showed me how to do that,” Sarah says today. “Instrumental tones fascinated me more than anything else at a very young age—even more than being with other kids.” She was so drawn to the different sounds that while growing up, she studied voice and every instrument she could get her hands on—the violin, viola, piano and French horn, along with some guitar, recorder and saxophone.

Music continues to be at the heart of Sarah’s life, along with daughter Audrey Rose, 2, and husband Scott Hartman. It would be impressive if, in this still male-dominated industry, she led just one American orchestra. But Sarah is the music director of both the El Paso Symphony Orchestra in Texas and the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra in South Carolina—opportunities too attractive to turn down. Her family’s home is in yet a third state, Connecticut, where Scott teaches trombone at Yale University. Navigating the three locations, as well as guest engagements spanning five continents, has meant lots of travel, usually with Audrey Rose in tow. “I’m rarely in the same place longer than two weeks,” she says. In El Paso, a nanny cares for Audrey Rose while Sarah performs.

In Spartanburg, Audrey Rose is in part-time child care. Sometimes when Scott travels for performances, Audrey Rose goes with him, and a babysitter tags along. Whenever Scott isn’t teaching or traveling, he joins his family wherever they may be. “It all takes a lot of planning,” Sarah says. “But we haven’t been away from each other for more than two weeks.” And soon, Sarah’s carefully orchestrated schedule will be further complicated: She’s expecting twins this month. “I know their arrival will control me, and I am giving myself over to it,” she says. “If I have to say, ‘No, I can’t conduct,’ for a little while, I will.” She admits that “saying no will be new to me. How I will do all this with twins is still a cliffhanger. It will be an adventure.”

Finding Harmony

Fittingly, it was music that brought Sarah and Scott together, in April 2005. “He was hired to play trombone as a guest artist for the first El Paso Orchestra concert I conducted,” she explains. They met on a publicity shoot to promote the concert, posing together on a Harley-Davidson. “He was very cool, laid-back, easy to be around,” recalls Sarah. “He was also charming, funny and not overly serious—in contrast to me. He seemed like a good person, solid and, oh yes, handsome.” After a whirlwind romance, they got married six months later. “We knew,” she says. For Sarah, it all comes down to devotion—to her daughter, to her husband, to her career. “Scott and I don’t like to compromise,” she says. “We want our individual careers and our family. It means pretty hard work, but it all pays off.” Sarah makes the most of days off at home, when she and Scott enjoy hiking, swimming and cooking. “We’re pretty much going all the time,” she says, “so we truly relish our time together when we’re not working.” Because her career includes artistic planning and organizing, Sarah is often on her computer. “There’s a lot of administrative work,” she says.

And there’s the travel: Once a month she goes on Expedia and books most of her flights for the next couple of months. Sarah is no stranger to the nomadic lifestyle. Born in Canberra, Australia, to a Scottish mother and Cypriot father, she grew up in England. Her parents separated soon after she was born. She loved to visit her father, a conductor and composer who lived in Germany and Finland: “I remember wanting to go with him to his work since I was a little girl, to be at every rehearsal.” Sarah attended her first classical concert in England when she was 13. “Music may have been more compelling because I wasn’t surrounded by it all the time,” she says. “I was given a little bounce of it—a really great taste—when I would see him. Then when I went home, I craved it.”

The Making of a Maestra

Back in England, her mother, a substitute music and language teacher, was encouraging but strict. “If I didn’t practice, I didn’t get pocket money,” she says. Sarah did practice—an hour a day for each instrument. She also worked at a gift shop on Saturdays while in high school to save for her first record player. Though she loved playing instruments, once she tried conducting, she was hooked: “For one of my music course exams, we had to get up and conduct our peers. I was seventeen, and even though I was flailing around, I felt that contact with the players and a real connection with the inner workings of the music. I knew this was something for me.” She went on to study music at Oxford, where by her second year she was conducting the main student orchestra. Sarah then received a master’s degree in conducting at the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York City, where she was awarded the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship and served as assistant conductor to Otto-Werner Mueller. The New York Times described her as a conductor with “unquestionable strength and authority.”

Balancing Dynamics

Sarah’s passion for her art makes it challenging to slow down, even for maternity leave. She conducted two days before Audrey Rose was born and then took several weeks to bond with her newborn. Six weeks later, with the baby in tow, she was conducting again. Sarah plans to continue her active professional life after the twins arrive—bringing more help along, she says. Still, there are occasional pangs of uncertainty. “It’s sometimes hard to keep up with everything,” Sarah says. “There are days I feel I’m not a good wife or a good conductor or a good mother. But everyone has those really rough days.” Her antidote is to try to do better the next day. “I persist. And I get great fulfillment—though maybe not every day—from each area of my life. And that feels really good.”

Sarah’s tips to help children love music

Have music playing in your home from the time they’re babies. Even better, start when they’re in the womb. Sing to them, too—and often. “Repeat just one or two songs all the time,” Sarah says, “so babies can remember and master them.” Her daughter’s favorites: “Rock-a-bye Baby” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Use musical repetition to let certain styles and rhythms sink in. Start with nursery rhymes. “Babies can grasp a simple melody structure,” she says. “The more they hear it, the more they’ll catch on.”

3 Ways to Entertain a Baby in Flight

• Drawing Sarah always brings a little notebook and a jar of crayons on the plane. “Each time we travel, we start a new page,” Sarah says. “We draw shapes and numbers and color things in. Audrey loves it.”
• Eating Sarah brings healthy snacks for both her and her daughter to nibble on while waiting on line or in case of flight delays. “I’ll bring edamame, avocado, some rice or barley with mixed vegetables and chicken, or a roasted sweet potato, and plenty of milk in sippy cups.”
• Storytelling Sarah reads to Audrey and tells her stories about the things they’ve seen and the places they’ve been.