Kwamé Ryan was born in Canada and grew up on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where he received his early musical education. He completed his studies in the UK and Hungary, reading Musicology at Cambridge University.

Currently in his second season as Music Director of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Ryan held the position of General Music Director of Freiburg Opera from 1999-2003, and served as Musical and Artistic Director of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux Aquitaine from 2007-13. As a guest conductor in Germany, he has led the Radio Orchestras of Stuttgart and Bavaria, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Staatsoper Saarbrücken, and Staatsoper Stuttgart. While in France, he worked at Opera de la Bastille, Opera de Lyon, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Work in the US and UK has taken him to the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Houston, Boston Lyric Opera, English National Opera, and the London Philharmonia.

Ryan has been a regular guest of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Proms, and Dutch National Opera, at which he has worked with the Residence Orchestra, The Hague, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In 2024, he returned to La Monnaie, Brussels for the revival of Kris De Foort's The Time of our Singing, his 2021 premiere of which earned the International Opera Award for World Premiere of the Year.

The 2025-26 season sees returns to the Washington National Opera and the New York Philharmonic as well as his debut at the Metropolitan Opera.