Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft
The award-winning American conductor Ryan Bancroft is Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ryan Bancroft grew up in Los Angeles and first came to international attention in April 2018 when he won both First Prize and Audience Prize at the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen.
Since 2023, Ryan Bancroft has held the position of Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, a choice met with acclaim across the music sphere. After his first season with the orchestra, it was evident that all expectations have not only been met but surpassed.
In his second season with the orchestra, 2024/25, Bancroft has continued to demonstrate a strong commitment to Swedish music, featuring works such as Wilhelm Stenhammar's Serenade and two Swedish world premieres. During his first season, he premiered a symphony by Daniel Börtz and conducted the European premiere of Anders Hillborg's The MAX Concerto. Noteworthy in a more standard repertoire was for instance the unanimously acclaimed interpretation of Mahler's Fifth Symphony in autumn 2023 (available on Konserthuset Play), and he opened his second season with the orchestra with Mahler's monumental Third Symphony.
In spring 2025, Ryan Bancroft and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra embark on their very first European tour together, joined by soprano Nina Stemme among others. Concerts are scheduled in Gothenburg, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Dortmund, Luxembourg, and Vienna.
Bancroft has recently debuted with numerous leading European and American orchestras, including the Philharmonia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Rai Orchestra in Turin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony. He has also conducted all major Swedish orchestras, including the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
He has a passion for contemporary music and has performed with Amsterdam’s acclaimed Nieuw Ensemble, the French Ensemble Intercontemporain, assisted Pierre Boulez in a performance of his Sur Incises in Los Angeles, premiered works by Sofia Gubaidulina, John Cage, James Tenney, Anne LeBaron, and he has worked closely with improvisers such as Wadada Leo Smith and Charlie Haden.
Ryan Bancroft studied trumpet at the California Institute of the Arts, alongside additional studies in harp, flute, cello, and Ghanaian music and dance. He then went on to receive an MMus in orchestral conducting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. While studying in Scotland he played trumpet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on many occasions.
He continued his conducting studies in the Netherlands and is a graduate of the prestigious Nationale Master Orkestdirectie run jointly by the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. As a student, his main mentors were Edward Carroll, Kenneth Montgomery, Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen.
A number of filmed concerts with Ryan Bancroft and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra are available on Konserthuset Play.
Concerts
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Vocal musicNina Stemme together with Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft in dramatic and masterful music.
Wednesday 12 March 2025 19.00
Nina Stemme. Photo: Yanan Li
Chefdirigent Ryan Bancroft. Photo: Yanan Li
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Nadja Sjöström
Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Vocal musicDemons, Sorrow and a Duel
Nina Stemme together with Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft in dramatic and masterful music.
Wednesday 12 March 2025 19.00
Ends approximately 21.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
145-470 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The link has been copied https://www.konserthuset.se/en/programme/calendar/concert/2025/demons-sorrow-and-a-duel/20250312-1900/The event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.The concert begins with Demon by the British-American composer Freya Waley-Cohen (born 1989) – a co-commissioned work by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra premiered in 2023 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She found inspiration in old folk tales from the British Isles, chilling stories where a demon can manifest anywhere - here as both menacing and playful orchestral music.
Menacing indeed. Mahler's heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder – Songs on the Death of Children – has tragic points of connection with Mahler's own life, and the composition would also come to seem like a premonition: a few years later, Mahler's eldest daughter Maria died. The poems by Friedrich Rückert that Mahler chose deal with the parents' grieving process and the slow reconciliation with a painful reality. The world-renowned Nina Stemme is the soloist in this poignant music.
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the orchestra in this program, which concludes with Carl Nielsen. Nielsen's Fourth Symphony is subtitled "Det uudslukkelige" (The Inextinguishable). It's dramatic music written in the midst of the First World War, famous in part for its duel between two timpanists.
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The music
Approximate times -
Freya Waley-Cohen Demon (The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestras joint commisson)10 min
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Gustav Mahler Kindertotenlieder26 min
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Intermission25 min
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Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 4 ’’The Inextinguishable’’37 min
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Participants
- Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
- Ryan Bancroft conductor
- Nina Stemme soprano
Wednesday 12 March 2025 19.00
Ends approximately 21.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
145-470 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Vocal music
Nina Stemme together with Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft in dramatic and masterful music.
Thursday 13 March 2025 19.00 ●Watch for free on Konserthuset Play ●Watch for free on Konserthuset Play
Nina Stemme. Photo: Yanan Li
Chefdirigent Ryan Bancroft. Photo: Yanan Li
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Nadja Sjöström
Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Vocal musicDemons, Sorrow and a Duel
Nina Stemme together with Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft in dramatic and masterful music.
Thursday 13 March 2025 19.00
Ends approximately 21.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
145-470 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
● Livestream
Watch the concert at Konserthuset Play.
The link has been copied https://www.konserthuset.se/en/programme/calendar/concert/2025/demons-sorrow-and-a-duel/20250313-1900/The event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.The concert begins with Demon by the British-American composer Freya Waley-Cohen (born 1989) – a co-commissioned work by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra premiered in 2023 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She found inspiration in old folk tales from the British Isles, chilling stories where a demon can manifest anywhere - here as both menacing and playful orchestral music.
Menacing indeed. Mahler's heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder – Songs on the Death of Children – has tragic points of connection with Mahler's own life, and the composition would also come to seem like a premonition: a few years later, Mahler's eldest daughter Maria died. The poems by Friedrich Rückert that Mahler chose deal with the parents' grieving process and the slow reconciliation with a painful reality. The world-renowned Nina Stemme is the soloist in this poignant music.
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the orchestra in this program, which concludes with Carl Nielsen. Nielsen's Fourth Symphony is subtitled "Det uudslukkelige" (The Inextinguishable). It's dramatic music written in the midst of the First World War, famous in part for its duel between two timpanists.
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The music
Approximate times -
Freya Waley-Cohen Demon (The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestras joint commisson)10 min
-
Gustav Mahler Kindertotenlieder26 min
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Intermission25 min
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Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 4 ’’The Inextinguishable’’37 min
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Participants
- Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
- Ryan Bancroft conductor
- Nina Stemme soprano
Thursday 13 March 2025 19.00
Ends approximately 21.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
145-470 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
● Livestream
Watch the concert at Konserthuset Play.
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic OrchestraChief Conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the orchestra in vibrant and brilliant music.
Wednesday 19 March 2025 18.00
Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft. Photo: Yanan Li
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Nadja Sjöström
Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic OrchestraTchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony
Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the orchestra in vibrant and brilliant music.
Wednesday 19 March 2025 18.00
Ends approximately 19.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
130-385 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The link has been copied https://www.konserthuset.se/en/programme/calendar/concert/2025/tchaikovskys-fifth-symphony/20250319-1800/The event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Tchaikovsky composed his fifth symphony during a few summer months in 1888. He had complained of lacking inspiration in the spring: "Am I burned out? No ideas, no desire?" But the fifth became a vital, emotionally charged, and in many respects brilliant symphony. It premiered under the composer's direction at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in November of the same year.
The concert begins with Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi's Liguria, music that takes us on a journey between five small fishing villages clinging to the cliffs along Italy's northwestern coast.
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The music
Approximate times -
Andrea Tarrodi Liguria10 min
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Pjotr Tjajkovskij Symphony No. 550 min
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Participants
- Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
- Ryan Bancroft conductor
Wednesday 19 March 2025 18.00
Ends approximately 19.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
130-385 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic OrchestraA beloved violin concerto and a brilliant symphony – featuring soloist Maria Ioudenitch and Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft.
Thursday 20 March 2025 18.00
Maria Ioudenitch. Photo: Andrej Grilc
Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft. Photo: Yanan Li
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Nadja Sjöström
Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic OrchestraSibelius and Tchaikovsky
A beloved violin concerto and a brilliant symphony – featuring soloist Maria Ioudenitch and Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft.
Thursday 20 March 2025 18.00
Ends approximately 20.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
145-470 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
The link has been copied https://www.konserthuset.se/en/programme/calendar/concert/2025/sibelius-and-tchaikovsky/20250320-1800/The event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Sibelius's violin concerto is now the most performed of all violin concertos from the 20th century. Yet its musical language belongs to the late 19th century, and the music is warm and lyrical, dramatic and melancholic. Sibelius, himself a violinist, possibly wrote the concerto he himself would have wanted to play – albeit on a technical level far beyond his own. In this way, the violin concerto can be seen as a farewell to the youthful dreams of a career as a violin virtuoso. It is among the more challenging in the genre, as many violinists have attested.
Taking on the challenge is the young award-winning violinist Maria Ioudenitch. In 2021, she won first prize in the prestigious Ysaÿe International Music Competition and the same year also the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition. Maria Ioudenitch was born in Russia but moved to the USA with her family at the age of two.
Tchaikovsky composed his fifth symphony during a few summer months in 1888. He had complained about a lack of inspiration in the spring: "Am I burned out? No ideas, no desire?" But the fifth became a vital, emotionally charged, and in many respects brilliant symphony. It premiered under the composer's direction at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in November of the same year.
The concert opens with the Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodis's Liguria, music that takes us on a journey between five small fishing villages clinging to the cliffs along Italy's northwest coast.
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The music
Approximate times -
Andrea Tarrodi Liguria10 min
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Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto31 min
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Intermission25 min
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Pjotr Tjajkovskij Symphony No. 550 min
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Participants
- Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
- Ryan Bancroft conductor
- Maria Ioudenitch violin
Thursday 20 March 2025 18.00
Ends approximately 20.00Save in calendarThe event has been downloaded Open the file saved on your device to add it to your digital calendar.Price:
145-470 SEK50% discount for those 26 and under. 10% discount for students, pensioners and the unemployed. 15% discount for subscribers.The Main Hall currently has capacity for 1,770 people, spread across the stalls, first and second balconies and choir balcony. Each floor can be accessed by lift or the stairs. Due to the location of pillars, a number of seats have a fully or partially restricted view. These are indicated in the booking system. The hall has six wheelchair places.
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