Kwamé Ryan

Music Director

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 U.K. and Hungary, reading Musicology at Cambridge University.  

The 2024-25 season marks the start of Ryan's tenure as Music Director of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he held the position of General Music Director of Freiburg Opera from 1999 to 2003 and served as Musical and Artistic Director of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux Aquitaine from 2007 to 2013. 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. In France, he has worked at Opéra de la Bastille, Opéra de Lyon, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. His work in the U.S. and the U.K. has taken him to the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Houston, Boston Lyric Opera, English National Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish Symphony, and the London Philharmonia. He has been a regular guest of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and, in 2021, returned to La Monnaie in Brussels for the world premiere of Kris Defoort's The Time of our Singing, which won the International Opera Award for World Premiere of the Year. 

A recipient of international awards for outstanding work in the field of music education, Ryan has served as Musical Director of the National Youth Orchestra of France and as Director of the Academy for the Performing Arts at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Guest engagements this season include returns to Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie and Dutch National Opera, along with debuts at Washington National Opera and the Residentie Orkest in The Hague.