Sian Edwards studied at the RNCM, and with Professor A.I. Musin at the Leningrad Conservatoire.  She is Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and Professor of Conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.   She has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras including Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland, Orchestre de Paris, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig, Ensemble Modern, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, the Hallé, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.  

She has worked at all the major UK opera houses. She made her operatic debut in 1986 conducting Weill's Mahagonny for Scottish Opera and her ROH debut in 1988 with Tippett's The Knot Garden.  From 1993 to 1995 she was Music Director of ENO for whom her repertoire included Khovanshchina, Jenufa, Queen of Spades and Blond Eckbert. Other operatic engagements include Munich, Opéra Comique, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna and Aspen.

Recent and future concert engagements include performances with Ensemble Modern, Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich, SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg, Kuopio Symphony, Turku Philharmonic, Klangforum Wien, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Musikfabrik, Landesjugendorchester Berlin, Deutscher Musikrat,, Jyväskylä Symphony, Sonderjyllands Symphony, Palestinian Youth Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic, São Paulo Symphony, St Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Turku Philharmonic, Milton Keynes City Orchestra , Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Russian National Orchestra, as well as appearances at the 2014 BBC Proms, on tour to Singapore with London Sinfonietta and at the Edinburgh International Festival and Aldeburgh Festival.

Operatic engagements include The Rape of Lucretia and La Traviata for the Theater an der Wien, Aida for the Royal Swedish Opera, Orpheus in the Underworld for ENO, Katya Kabanova, Iolanta and Mark Adamo’s Little Women for Opera Holland Park, Katya Kabanova for Opera North,  The Rake’s Progress and Bluebeard’s Castle for Scottish Opera, David Bruce’s Nothing for Glyndebourne, Ades’ The Tempest for Oper Frankfurt, the world premieres of Turnage’s Coraline and Luke Bedford’s Through His Teeth for Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and a concert performance of Tippett’s King Priam at the Brighton Festival.