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 Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, and André 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. He led them on tour to South America, joined them for their 90th anniversary celebrations, and conducted their Proms in the Park in September 2018. 
    Llewellyn has appeared with several opera companies including the English National Opera, Opera North, and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, conducting repertoire from Mozart’s 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 Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Opéra de Rennes, where this season he led 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.