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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. He held the position of General Music Director of Freiburg Opera between 1999 and 2003, and served as Musical and Artistic Director of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux Aquitaine between 2007 and 2013. As a guest conductor in Germany, he 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 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, Brussels for the world premiere of Kris De Foort’s The Time of our Singing which won the International Opera Award as 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. Following recent engagements with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Opera and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Ryan returns in the 2023-24 season to the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra with debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Opera Theater St. Louis and at Houston Grand Opera for the World Premiere of acclaimed composer Jake Heggie’s latest stage work, Intelligence. He was recently named Music Director Designate of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and will take up that post as of the 2024/25 season.