This concert is the North Carolina Symphony debut for Kellen Gray.

Born and raised in Rock Hill, South Carolina, American conductor Kellen Gray’s early professional life took him on a path ranging from orchestral violinist to beekeeper before turning his full-time attention to conducting. Since the end of 2023, he serves as Associate Artist of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra: a newly created role that sees him conduct, curate, and present programs across the RSNO’s series offerings. Since September 2024, he is also Conductor & Artistic Director of the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, where he is leading artistic programming and community enrichment activities for the city of Lafayette, Indiana.

Recent and forthcoming guest conducting highlights include engagements with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), and Seattle Opera, among others. In the United Kingdom, he has worked with such orchestras as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Gray credits the many folk music styles of the south-eastern United States as his earliest and most impactful musical influences, and his repertoire interests have been fueled by the engaged pursuit of that same spirit of cultural authenticity. This has led to a particular mastery not only of works that incorporate American folk idioms, but also in-depth explorations of heavily folk-inspired European composers such as Béla Bartók, Manuel de Falla, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, among others.

A passionate champion for African-diasporic composers, Gray was the founder and curator of Charleston Symphony’s Project Aurora: a programming and performance initiative aiming to illustrate the importance of African American arts and culture as equally valuable to its European equivalent. Additionally, he serves as Assistant Editor & Conductor Liaison for the African Diaspora Music Project, after extensive research at The Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at Columbia College Chicago.

Gray’s discography to date comprises two releases with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra —African American Voices and African American Voices II—showcasing music by Margaret Bonds, William Dawson, William Grant Still, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Florence Price, and George Walker. Both records have received five-star reviews from the magazine The Diapason.

Previous positions in Gray’s formative years as a conductor included tenures with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Assistant Conductor, 2021-2023), Charleston Symphony Orchestra (Associate Conductor, 2018-2023), Chicago Sinfonietta (Conducting Fellow & Assistant Conductor, 2016-2018), and Valdosta Symphony Orchestra (Assistant Conductor, 2014-2016).

Kellen Gray is based in Baltimore, Maryland.