Kwamé Ryan

Kwamé Ryan (born 1970 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Trinidadian-Canadian conductor.

Early history and education
Ryan is the son of Joya Gomez, a school teacher and actress and Selwyn Ryan, a university professor. He had his primary and early musical education at the University School, St Augustine, Trinidad. A month after his birth, the family moved to Uganda. Several years later, the family moved to Trinidad. He studied piano, violin and voice privately.

Ryan subsequently moved to the United Kingdom, where he attended Oakham School, in Rutland, England. He then studied musicology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. His UK mentors included Mark Elder. In Germany, Ryan attended the University of Tübingen for two years, for language and culture studies. Ryan later studied conducting with Peter Eötvös in Hungary. Other conducting mentors included Lothar Zagrosek. From 1999 to 2003, he served as Generalmusikdirektor (GMD, General Music Director) of the Freiburg Opera and Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra. His work there included a commercial recording of Luigi Nono's Prometeo, as second conductor.

Conducting career
Ryan made his professional UK conducting debut at the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival. He subsequently returned to the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 as conductor of ballet performances with the Scottish Ballet and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. His UK opera conducting debut was in October 2005 with English National Opera, in a production of Salome.

In 2007, Ryan became music director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine (ONBA), for an initial contract of 3 years. He held the ONBA post until June 2013, during which period several commercial recordings were released. He served as music director of l'Orchestre Français des Jeunes from 2008 to 2011.

Ryan was appointed Professor and Director of the University of Trinidad and Tobago's National Academy for the Performing Arts in 2015, focusing on youth arts and community development projects, until the end of his tenure in 2022. In January 2023, Ryan first guest-conducted the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Ryan returned to the Charlotte Symphony for an additional guest-conducting engagement in November 2023. In December 2023, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Ryan as its next music director, effective as of the 2024-2025 season, with an initial contract of 4 years.

Recordings
Ryan's recordings include:
 * Simplicius Simplicissimus by Karl Amadeus Hartmann from Stuttgart (2005, DVD)
 * Vortex Temporum by Gerard Grisey
 * works by Salvatore Sciarrino with Ensemble Recherché
 * Prometeo by Luigi Nono
 * Neither by Feldman
 * Schubert's Symphony No. 9 and Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2, with Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
 * Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 and 2 with Shani Diluka and Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitaine