rowan benedict sheehan

full bio

Three-time GRAMMY® nominee and American Prize-winner Rowan Benedict Sheehan (he/him) has been called “one of the leading voices in religious classical music in the 21st century” (ConcertoNet) and “a remarkable musician and composer” (Choral Journal), and it is said that “his music is known for its emotional depth, luminous textures, and expressive power” (Canadian Music Centre). He is Artistic Director and founder of the GRAMMY®-nominated Artefact Ensemble and a full-time freelance composer.

His compositions have been praised as “luminous and uplifting” (Choir & Organ), “evocative” (Gramophone), “hypnotically beautiful” (MusicWeb International), “fresh and vibrant” (Audiophile Audition), “otherworldly” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), “monumental” (The Arts Desk, London), “glorious” (Classical Music Daily), “spellbinding” (Textura), “amazing” (Classics Today), and “simply breathtaking” (New York Concert Review). His performances as a conductor have likewise been described as “technically flawless” (Musical America), “choral singing at its most exquisite” (HRAudio), “extravagantly beautiful” (The American Organist), and “beyond praise for excellence” (Fanfare Magazine).

Sheehan’s award-winning recordings include Akathist (2024) (GRAMMY® nominated), Vespers (2021) (American Prize Winner), Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (2020) (GRAMMY® nominated), and Ukrainian War Requiem (2025) (JUNO® winner). His recorded works also include three acclaimed collaborations with Skylark Vocal Ensemble and conductor Matthew Guard on Once Upon A Time (2020) (GRAMMY® nominated), Songbird Antiphons (2025), and A Christmas Carol (2025), featuring EMMY® and TONY® Award-winning actress Christine Baranski as narrator, where Sheehan’s music and Baranski’s narration was described by The New York Times as “a natural pairing.” His song cycle for soprano, cello, and harp, Let Evening Come—based on texts by poet Jane Kenyon—was the centerpiece of soprano Fotina Naumenko’s 2024 GRAMMY®-nominated album Bespoke Songs (“Best Classical Solo Vocal Performance”).

In 2021 Sheehan conducted Artefact Ensemble in front of sold-out audiences in the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s O Holy Father Nicholas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and in 2024, again with Artefact Ensemble in front of sold-out audiences, he conducted a partial program of his own works at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in collaboration with the GRAMMY® Award-winning Experiential Orchestra and conductor James Blachly. In the spring of 2027, Sheehan will be presented by Mid-America Productions as a headliner at Carnegie Hall, where he will conduct the premiere of his own new forthcoming work, Strange Communion, with a nationwide festival chorus and the New England Symphonic Ensemble.

His works have been featured on numerous radio broadcasts, including several complete programs on NPR’s With Heart and Voice, hosted by Peter DuBois, as well on BBC Radio, CBC Radio, and The Classical Network, among many others. In 2024 Sheehan received an on-screen credit as Assistant Orchestrator on Pixar’s animated classic Elemental, directed by Peter Sohn, where he worked closely with composer Thomas Newman and head orchestrator J.A.C. Redford. He is also credited as Composer on the 2024 independent short film To Build A Fire, directed by Jennings Barmore and premiered at the Montana Film Festival.

Sheehan’s music has been performed—and continues to be performed—by many of today’s leading ensembles across the globe, including a 2022 collaboration with GRAMMY® Award-winner Conspirare and conductor Craig Hella Johnson on a setting of the African-American manifesto Credo by W.E.B. DuBois, and the UK premiere of A Christmas Carol by the BBC Singers at the Barbican in London, conducted by Bob Chilcott and narrated by Mel Giedroyc of The Great British Bake-off, where the work was featured as the headliner on the BBC’s 2023 live Christmas radio broadcast. His work In the Wondrous Blending of Sounds was the favorite program closer for the acclaimed Phillipines Madrigal Singers’ 2025 world tour. Other groups performing Sheehan’s music include GRAMMY® Award-winners The Kansas City Chorale and The Houston Chamber Choir, as well as The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Chor Leoni (Canada), the Yale Glee Club, Meridian (UK), the Vancouver Youth Choir, the Chicago Chamber Choir, the San Antonio Choral Society, the Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, and Rigas Projektu Koris (Latvia), among countless others.

In 2023 A Christmas Carol was featured on the Voces8 “Live From London” webcast, and the work is fast becoming a seasonal favorite, getting performed annually by dozens of groups across North America and beyond, including in a newly orchestrated version commissioned in 2025 by Harvard University. His Ukrainian War Requiem, honoring the victims of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, was premiered in April of 2024 by Axios Men’s Ensemble and Pro Coro Canada in Edmonton and Calgary, under the direction of Michael Zaugg, and the recording was released in 2025 on the Cappella Records label to widespread acclaim, winning a JUNO® award in 2026 for “Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble).” His music is published by Oxford University Press, E.C Schirmer, Artefact Publications, Hal Leonard, and others, and is available wherever music is sold. 

Sheehan is currently working on The Fire Planet—a program-length commission for chorus and percussion by Te Deum (Kansas City) that explores the unique role fire has played in the history of the earth and human evolution—in collaboration with prominent poet and lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri, with whom Sheehan has worked closely for many years. He is also working on a new chamber orchestration of A Christmas Carol, commissioned in 2026 by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and Music in the Somerset Hills. One of his most recent works, The Passion of Mary, was recorded in 2025 by Artefact Ensemble under Sheehan’s direction and will be released in early 2027 on the Sono Luminus label.

Sheehan is also a person who stutters. He is a passionate advocate for people in the arts with disabilities, especially those with speech differences, and his projects and ensembles have become known within the American choral world as welcoming, inclusive, and life-affirming spaces for musicians and audiences alike. He is the father of seven daughters and he lives and works in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

short bio (120 words)

Three-time GRAMMY® nominee and American Prize-winner Rowan Benedict Sheehan has been called “a conductor and composer to watch in the 21st century” (ConcertoNet). He is artistic director and founder of Artefact Ensemble and a full-time freelance composer. His works have been described as “brilliant” (Choir & Organ), “otherworldly” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), “evocative” (Gramophone), and “simply beyond praise for excellence” (Fanfare). His music is published by Oxford University Press, Artefact Publications, and others, and has been performed by many of the world’s leading ensembles, including Skylark, Conspirare, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Houston Chamber Choir, Cappella Romana, the Kansas City Chorale, and the BBC Singers along with countless others. He lives and works in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.