Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

Ryan Bancroft grew up in Los Angeles and first came to international prominence in 2018, when he won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen.

Ryan Bancroft has been Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since 2023, an appointment that was met with acclaim across the musical world. After just his first season with the orchestra, it was clear that all expectations had been fulfilled – and indeed surpassed.

With the 2026/27 season, Ryan Bancroft begins his fourth season as Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He continues to demonstrate a strong commitment to Swedish music, including the world premiere of works by the Composer-in-Residence, Djuro Zivkovic. Since taking up his post in 2023, the collaboration has developed into a success story marked by a shared sense of joy in music-making and discovery, and their first European tour together in spring 2025 was a triumph.

The season opening on 10 September sets the tone – fittingly for the blue concert hall – with Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral. The programme also includes music by Jean Sibelius and Anders Hillborg. Vilde Frang is the soloist in Korngold’s Violin Concerto, and a new fanfare by the Composer-in-Residence, Djuro Zivkovic, receives its world premiere.

Bancroft also opens the Composer Festival devoted to the music of Betsy Jolas. During the season, he conducts, among other works, Britta Byström’s newly written Concerto for Orchestra, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 and Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2, as well as three concerts in the Beethoven Festival – Symphonies Nos. 1, 5 and 9. In April 2027, a new European tour awaits with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Bancroft.

In recent years, Bancroft has made debuts with a number of leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Cleveland Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. He has also conducted all the major Swedish orchestras, including the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Ryan Bancroft has a strong interest in contemporary music and has worked with leading ensembles such as Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam and Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris. He has assisted Pierre Boulez in a performance of sur Incises in Los Angeles and has conducted world premieres of works by Sofia Gubaidulina, John Cage, James Tenney and Anne LeBaron. He has also collaborated with improvising musicians such as Wadada Leo Smith and Charlie Haden.

Ryan Bancroft studied trumpet at the California Institute of the Arts, where he also studied harp, flute and cello, as well as Ghanaian music and dance. He later continued his studies in conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During his time there, he frequently performed as a trumpeter with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

He went on to complete further conducting studies in the Netherlands, graduating from the prestigious Nationale Master Orkestdirectie, jointly organised by the conservatoires in Amsterdam and The Hague. His mentors there included Edward Carroll, Kenneth Montgomery, Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen.

Ryan Bancroft now lives in London. In 2021, he received the Conductor Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society.