American conductor Christopher James Ray has been praised by Opera News as one who “leads with clarity and sensitivity” and by the Boston Music Intelligencer for his “excellent conducting.” A musician well versed in traditional operas as well as twentieth and twenty-first century works, Ray has held positions with the Bayreuth Festival, where he worked on productions of Der Fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Götterdämmerung, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal; and with Opera San José, where he spent three seasons as resident conductor, leading works like Hansel & Gretel, Carmen, and West Side Story. The 2023-24 season marked Ray’s conducting debut with the San Francsico Symphony in a Soundbox performance curated by Mazz Swift; he has previously held the position there of assistant conductor to Philippe Jordan, Robin Ticciati, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson-Thomas, and Gustavo Dudamel. Ray has also recently worked with Rafael Payare at the San Diego Symphony and Kent Nagano at the Hamburg State Orchestra.
Ray has been named Executive Director of the Carlisle Floyd Centennial’s newly minted initiative to celebrate the late iconic American composer with international productions, concerts, events, programs, and performances leading up to and continuing through the 100th anniversary of Floyd’s birth, June 11, 2026. Ray served as a longtime assistant to Floyd and has remained a sought-after interpreter of his mentor’s works. He performed alongside mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer on C. Floyd: Letter to the World, an album of Floyd’s songs on GPR Records.
Ray has conducted notable productions of opera on film, including Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s chamber operaThree Decembers for Opera San José in a production later simulcast on the channels of Houston Grand Opera and Fort Worth Opera. He has since conducted the work for Berkshire Opera Festival, about which Seen and Heard International wrote, "Christopher James Ray made Heggie's score pop with energy and throb with emotion." Ray’s other recent filmed productions with Opera San José include a recital of Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Tom Cipullo’s The Husbands.
Ray made his professional debut in his home state conducting the Mississippi Opera and has since been a part of productions with Las Cruces Symphony, the Festival Napa Valley, Salzburg State Theater, Sarasota Opera, New York City Opera, and the Memphis, California and Lima Symphonies.
"Ray’s enthusiasm ran high throughout, and this he transmitted to his band, which treated the audience to an unflagging performance… it’s safe to say the maestro knows the storytelling power inherent in motifs."- Operawire
