Equally at home in the world of opera, symphonic repertoire and contemporary music, American conductor Ryan McAdams has established a presence on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the 2022/23 Ryan makes his debut at the Opernhaus Zürich in a revival of Faust. Ryan also returns to the Belgium National Orchestra and to Italy where he regularly conducts I Pomeriggi Musicali, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra della Toscana, Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. He enjoys a close relationship with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, having conducted them four times during the 20/21 season as well as recently touring with them in an all-Beethoven programme around Southern Italy. Also part of this season was joining the newly founded regenerative arts and artist training company Hogfish at the historic Beckett Castle on the coast of Maine in the summer, where he conducted Gluck’s L’arbre enchanté.
A contemporary music advocate, Ryan is the Principal Conductor of the Crash Ensemble, Ireland's foremost contemporary music group. They will be together in the National Concert Hall for the New Music Dublin 2023 Festival and for Crash's 25th birthday celebrations. They also have been invited to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival this Fall following the revival andtour of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh' latest opera The First Child for Irish National Opera, which had been highly successful at the Galway International Arts Festival this past summer. Signum has recorded the production and the CD is due to be released later this season.
The 21/22 season included Ryan’s highly successful return to the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra in Istanbul, his debut with the Orchestre National d’Île de France at the Philharmonie in Paris conducting a programme including Beethoven's 5th Symphony and a new concerto by Bryce Dessner. Ryan also returned to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in April 2022 for a revival of Tosca as well to the I Pomeriggi Musicali, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and Orchestra della Toscana.
Further recent highlights include the new production of the Les pêcheurs de perles at the Teatro Regio di Torino, a tour of Tuscany with the Orchestra della Toscana, a return to Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducting a new production of Carmen and a revival of Les pêcheurs de perles, subscription concerts with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Lirico Sinfonica Petruzzelli di Bari, Kansas City Symphony, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, and a return to the Israel Philharmonic. Ryan has lead multiple concerts with Crash including the world premieres of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh's operas The Second Violinist and The First Child. They took that production of The Second Violinist to the Barbican in London and to Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, and would have brought it to the Park Avenue Armory in New York in Autumn 2020 had circumstances permitted. Ryan was the conductor for Elliott Carter's 103rd Birthday Celebration at the 92Y, a concert that was named one of the Best Classical Music Events of 2012 by the New York Times.
He has appeared with the Vancouver Symphony, National Symphony in Washington, DC, Santa Fe Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, Opera Nationale de Lorraine, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, L'Orchestra de Chambre de Geneve, New York City Opera, and the Moscow State Philharmonic.
Ryan studied at the Juilliard School and Indiana University. The post of Apprentice Conductor at Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival was created for him, and he also was a Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood and an Assistant Conductor at the Aspen Music Festival. A Fulbright scholar, he served as Apprentice Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, assisting then-Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert. He is the first-ever recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award and the Aspen-Glimmerglass Prize for Opera Conducting.
When Ryan is not travelling, he lives in Brighton, UK, with his wife, the dancer and theatre artist Laura Careless, and their son Owain, while remaining a close connection to the community of Rhinebeck, New York, where they lived for many years
November 2022
