Kwamé Ryan is a Grammy Award-winning conductor, currently in his third season as music director of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Born in Canada then educated in Trinidad and Tobago and the U.K., Ryan formerly held the position of general music director of Freiburg Opera, Germany, from 1999 to 2003, and he served as musical and artistic director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine, France, from 2007 to 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 New York, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Houston, Boston Lyric Opera, English National Opera, the London Philharmonia and the BBC Proms. He is a regular guest with Washington National Opera and Dutch National Opera. 

A recipient of international awards for outstanding work in the field of music education, Ryan has served as director of Trinidad and Tobago’s Academy for the Performing Arts and musical director of the National Youth Orchestra of France, where he was made a Knight in the French state’s prestigious Order of Arts and Letters. Under his musical direction, La Monnaie’s 2021 production of Kris Defoort’s The Time of Our Singing was named World Premiere of the Year at the International Opera Awards, and Houston Grand Opera’s recording of Jake Heggie’s Intelligence was awarded the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

The 2026–27 season sees his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Milwaukee Symphony as well as returns to Dutch National Opera and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.