Kwamé Ryan facts for kids
Kwamé Ryan is a talented conductor from Trinidad and Canada. He is known for leading orchestras and opera performances around the world. He has held important roles, including being the music director for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.
Contents
Kwamé Ryan's Life Story
Early Life and Education
Kwamé Ryan was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His mother, Joya Gomez, was a teacher and actress, and his father, Selwyn Ryan, was a university professor. When Kwamé was just one month old, his family moved to Uganda. A few years later, they moved to Trinidad.
He started his musical journey early, learning piano, violin, and singing privately. Later, he moved to the United Kingdom to attend Oakham School in Rutland, England. He then studied music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. While in the UK, he learned from mentors like Mark Elder.
Kwamé also spent two years in Germany, studying language and culture at the University of Tübingen. He later studied how to conduct music with Peter Eötvös in Hungary. Another important conducting teacher for him was Lothar Zagrosek.
Kwamé Ryan's Conducting Career
Kwamé Ryan has had a very successful career leading orchestras and operas. From 1999 to 2003, he was the General Music Director (GMD) for the Freiburg Opera and Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany. This means he was in charge of all the music for these groups.
In 2007, he became the music director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine (ONBA) in France. He stayed in this role until June 2013, and during this time, they released several music recordings. He also led l'Orchestre Français des Jeunes, a youth orchestra, from 2008 to 2011.
In 2015, Kwamé Ryan was appointed a Professor and Director at the University of Trinidad and Tobago's National Academy for the Performing Arts. Here, he focused on projects that helped young people in the arts and developed communities. He held this position until 2022.
In January 2023, Kwamé Ryan was a guest conductor for the first time with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in the United States. He returned to conduct them again in November 2023. In December 2023, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra announced that he would become their next music director, starting with the 2024-2025 season. His first contract with them is for four years.
As a guest conductor, Kwamé Ryan has worked with many famous groups. In Germany, he has conducted the Radio Orchestras of Stuttgart and Bavaria, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He has also led performances at the Staatsoper Saarbrücken and Staatsoper Stuttgart. In France, he has worked at Opera de la Bastille, Opera de Lyon, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, he has been invited to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Theater St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, and the New York Philharmonic. He has also worked with symphony orchestras in Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and Houston, as well as the English National Opera and the London Philharmonia.
He is also a regular guest conductor for the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Proms, and the Dutch National Opera. In 2024, he returned to La Monnaie in Brussels for a new performance of Kris De Foort’s The Time of our Singing. His first performance of this work in 2021 won an International Opera Award for the World Premiere of the year.
Kwamé Ryan's Recordings
Kwamé Ryan has conducted many recordings, which are albums or videos of musical performances. Some of his recordings include:
- Simplicius Simplicissimus by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (2005, DVD)
- Vortex Temporum by Gerard Grisey
- Works by Salvatore Sciarrino with Ensemble Recherché
- Prometeo by Luigi Nono
- Neither by Morton Feldman
- Schubert: Symphony No. 9 / Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2, with Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
- Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2 with Shani Diluka and Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitaine
- De Foort: The Time of Our Singing
- Heggie: Intelligence
See also
