Kwamé Ryan

Kwamé Ryan is a Trinidadian-Canadian conductor. Since 2024, he has been Music Director of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.

Biography Early history and education Born in Toronto, Ontario, Kwamé Ryan is the son of Joya Gomez, an Educator/Actress and Selwyn Ryan, a university professor. He had his primary and early musical education at the University School, St Augustine, Trinidad. A month after his birth, the family moved to Uganda. Several years later, the family moved to Trinidad. He studied piano, violin and voice privately.

Ryan subsequently moved to the United Kingdom, where he attended Oakham School, in Rutland, England. He then studied musicology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. His UK mentors included Mark Elder. In Germany, Ryan attended the University of Tübingen for two years, for language and culture studies. Ryan later studied conducting with Peter Eötvös in Hungary. Other conducting mentors included Lothar Zagrosek. He served as music director of l'Orchestre Français des Jeunes from 2008 to 2011.

Ryan was appointed Professor and Director of the University of Trinidad and Tobago's National Academy for the Performing Arts in 2015, focusing on youth arts and community development projects, until the end of his tenure in 2022. In January 2023, Ryan first guest-conducted the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Ryan returned to the Charlotte Symphony for a further guest-conducting engagement in November 2023. In December 2023, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Ryan as its next Music Director, effective as of the 2024-2025 season, with an initial contract of 4 years.

As a guest conductor in Germany, Ryan has conducted the Radio Orchestras of Stuttgart and Bavaria, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Staatsoper Saarbrücken and Staatsoper Stuttgart, while in France, he has worked at Opera de la Bastille, Opera de Lyon and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Work in the U.S and the U.K. has led to invitations to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Theater St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, the New York Philharmonic as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Houston, English National Opera and the London Philharmonia. He has been a frequent guest of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Proms, La Monnaie and Dutch National Opera in collaboration with the Residence Orchestra, The Hague and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

At the 2026 Grammy Awards Ceremony, Ryan was awarded his first Grammy for Houston Grand Opera's recording of Jake Heggie's Intelligence.

Recordings Ryan's recordings include: Simplicius Simplicissimus by Karl Amadeus Hartmann from Stuttgart (2005, DVD) Vortex Temporum by Gerard Grisey works by Salvatore Sciarrino with Ensemble Recherché Prometeo by Luigi Nono Neither by Morton Feldman Schubert: Symphony No. 9 / Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2, with Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2 with Shani Diluka and Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitaine De Foort: The Time of Our Singing Heggie: Intelligence