Ryan McAdams, Music Director

Twenty-eight year old conductor Ryan McAdams is the 15th Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony. A Fulbright scholar, he previously served as Apprentice Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under the tutelage of then-Chief Conductor (now Music Director of the New York Philharmonic) Alan Gilbert.  He is the first-ever recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award, a major grant given by the Solti Foundation in Chicago. 

Highlights of the 2009-2010 season include appearances with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, New York City Opera, Princeton Symphony, and the Tanglewood Music Festival, in addition to his three Carnegie Hall performances with the NYYS.  His American opera debut with New York City Opera has lead to re-invitations for concerts and operas with the NYCO in the next two seasons. Recent performances include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, the Wordless Music Series, New Jersey Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera, Rutgers University, and the Juilliard FOCUS! Festival. He has served as cover conductor to David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall in performances of the U.S. Premiere of John Adams' "Doctor Atomic Symphony" and Messiaen's "Turangalila" Symphony, and as assistant conductor to Anne Manson at the Juilliard Opera Center for the New York premiere of Ned Rorem's "Our Town."

Mr. McAdams made his subscription European debut in Februrary, 2010, with the orchestra of the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and has been re-invited for subscription concerts in 2012.  He will return to Italy in 2011 for subscription concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI.

This past summer, at the invitation of James Levine and the Tanglewood Festival, he served as one of Tanglewood's Conducting Fellows. Highlights included a performance of Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments with Peter Serkin, assisting Maestro Levine on a performance of Act III of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg," and a performance of John Zorn's violin concerto "Contes de Fees" which will be commercially released by the composer. 

After two years as a conducting student at Aspen, he became the first-ever recipient of the Glimmerglass-Aspen Prize for Opera and Vocal Conducting, having been nominated by both David Zinman and Glimmerglass Opera. As a result of the award, he served as Assistant Conductor for Glimmerglass Opera's 2007 season. In 2008, he returned to Aspen to serve as the Assistant Conductor of the Festival.

In 2007, he was invited by Lorin Maazel to create the post of Apprentice Conductor for the Chateauville Foundation at the Maazel Estate in Virginia, assisting Maestro Maazel on a production of Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" with singers from the MET Lindermann program.

Ryan McAdams was the first Masters student accepted into the Juilliard conducting program by James DePreist, and is a recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship. A native of St. Louis, he received his M.M. in Orchestral Conducting from the Juilliard School in 2006, and a B.M. in Piano Performance from Indiana University in 2004. He is managed exclusively by Columbia Artists Managment, Inc. (CAMI).  For more information, please visit http://www.ryan-mcadams.com/.

Sarah Kidd, Assistant Conductor

As a recipient of the Bruno Walter Foundation's fellowship for conducting studies at the Juilliard School, Sarah Kidd has already distinguished herself as a promising new light in the next generation of American conductors. In addition to working with Maestro James DePreist, she has conducted in master classes with Maestros Alan Gilbert from the New York Philharmonic and John Keenan from the Metropolitan Opera.  Already in her first year, she has assisted composers John Adams and Tan Dun. Ms. Kidd is a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she studied conducting with David Effron and cello with Helga Winold.