RYAN MURRAY

Guest Conductor

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Ryan Murray is the Artistic Director of Music in the Mountains, the Principal Pops Conductor of the Modesto Symphony and the Music Director and Conductor for the Auburn Symphony. An award-winning opera conductor, Ryan is currently the Music Director of Opera Modesto and past Music Director of Fresno Grand Opera. Recent engagements include guest conducting at the Mendocino Music Festival and the Sacramento Philharmonic and cover conducting the Baltimore Symphony.

 

A passionate music educator, Ryan currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at CSU Sacramento as Director of Orchestra and Opera.  He conducts the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s premier orchestra.  

 

Ryan is a past winner of the Vienna Philharmonic’s prestigious Ansbacher Fellowship for Young Conductors, and spent the summer in residence at the 2014 Salzburg Festival. Ryan was awarded second place in the 2019 American Prize for Professional Orchestral Conducting and has garnered national recognition for his dynamic, compelling performances of contemporary opera as the winner of the 2017 American Prize in Opera Conducting. 

 

With an enthusiasm for film scores, Ryan enjoys the unique challenges of conducting movies in concert.  He is a Disney & ICM Approved Conductor. Recent and upcoming performances include The Original Star Wars Trilogy, Fantasia, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Nightmare Before Christmas and more.

 

Ryan holds degrees, summa cum laude, in Bassoon and Voice Performance from CSU Sacramento.  He holds a master’s degree, with distinction, in Music Business from the Berklee College of Music. Ryan has previously attended the Cabrillo Festival’s Conductors Workshop and was one of just eight conductors worldwide to be invited to the Musiikin aika Masterclass in Finland. He previously attended the Contemporary Music Symposium led by Alan Gilbert, featuring the New York Philharmonic, the Aurora Chamber Festival in Sweden, the Lucerne Festival’s Conducting Masterclass in Switzerland, and the Eastman School of Music’s Summer Conducting Institute.