Music Director of Orchestre National de Bretagne and Music Director Laureate of the North Carolina Symphony, Grant Llewellyn is renowned for his charisma, energy, and easy authority in music of all styles and periods. Born in Tenby, South Wales, Llewellyn won a Conducting Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in 1985 where he worked with Bernstein, Ozawa, Masur, and Previn.
    After 16 seasons as the North Carolina Symphony’s Music Director, Llewellyn currently holds the post of Music Director Laureate. He has conducted widely across North America, most notably the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Milwaukee, Montreal, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Toronto, and recently at Caramoor Festival with the Orchestra of St Luke’s. During his time as Music Director of the Handel and Haydn Society, America’s leading period orchestra, he gained a reputation as a formidable interpreter of music of the baroque and classical periods.
    This season is his seventh as Music Director of the newly designated Orchestre National de Bretagne. Recent guest engagements include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, among others. Llewellyn enjoys a continuing relationship with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales whom he led on tour to Patagonia and South America as well as joining their 90th anniversary celebrations and conducting their Proms in the Park in September 2018.
    Llewellyn has appeared at the opera companies including English National Opera, Opera North, and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where his repertoire has ranged from The Magic Flute to Alexander Goehr’s Arianna. Recent productions include the United States premiere of Handel’s Richard the Lionheart with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Fidelio with the Opéra de Rennes, where this season he leads Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.
    Notable recordings with the North Carolina Symphony include American Spectrum, featuring saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and Britten’s Cello Symphony and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante, both with cellist Zuill Bailey; with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he recently recorded a disc of Lowell Liebermann’s orchestral works.
    Llewellyn regularly leads education and outreach projects; in 2017 he led the first ever “relaxed” BBC Prom with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a concert specially designed for those with autism, sensory and communication impairments, and learning disabilities.