Raised in Los Angeles, conductor Ryan Bancroft has rapidly built an international career which takes him all over the globe working with many of the world’s leading orchestras. Since September 2021 Bancroft has been Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In September 2023 he became Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. He also holds the position of Artist-in-Association with the Tapiola Sinfonietta in Finland.

After opening his tenure as Chief Conductor in Stockholm with the orchestra’s first performance of Sven-David Sandström’s The High Mass in 2023, Bancroft’s first two seasons have included performances of Mahler and Bruckner symphonies alongside world premieres by Chrichan Larson and Zacharias Wolfe, whilst working with renowned soloists including Emmanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes, Maxim Vengerov and Víkingur Ólafsson. In 25/26, Bancroft will continue to partner important contemporary composers such as Allan Pettersson, Tebogo Monnakgotla and Magnus Lindberg with established works in the classical canon by Prokofiev, Berlioz and Shostakovich.

In August 2023 Bancroft returned to Los Angeles to make his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. In the 25/26 season he returns to conduct them at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in their subscription series which follows on from his critically acclaimed debut at the venue in April 2025. Elsewhere in the US this season he makes his debuts with the St Louis, Houston and New World Symphony Orchestras, following recent successful debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco and Dallas Symphony Orchestras. He has close relationships in Canada with the Toronto Symphony and National Arts Centre, Ottawa.

In the 25/26 season, Bancroft made his debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican with Clara-Jumi Kang, and with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo with Thomas Hampson. He will also continue his relationships with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. In recent seasons, he has led the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfonica Castilla y Leon.

Since his success at the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2018, where he won both First Prize and Audience Prize, Bancroft has conducted a number of other leading European orchestras including the BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Rai Torino.

Bancroft has a passion for contemporary music and has performed with Ensemble Intercontemporain,  Amsterdam’s acclaimed Nieuw Ensemble, 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 has worked closely with improvisers such as Wadada Leo Smith and Charlie Haden.

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.

This is his first appearance at PMF.