Kellen Gray: The Conductor Championing African Diaspora Composers & Crafting a New Classical Legacy
Kellen Gray
Kellen Gray’s path to the conductor’s podium is an unconventional one, shaped by moments of reinvention, unexpected opportunities, and an ever-deepening passion for music. As the Associate Artist of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Lafayette Symphony, and Conductor Liaison and Assistant Editor of the African Diasporic Music Project, Gray has carved out a career that blends performance, scholarship, and advocacy. Yet, conducting was never part of his original plan.
Growing up in Rock Hill, South Carolina—dubbed Football City, USA, Gray initially saw his future in sports, following in the footsteps of his father, a football coach. However, a pivotal moment in middle school shifted his trajectory. As his football potential faded, he discovered a natural affinity for music, excelling in his school’s orchestra program. “I was good at something again,” he recalls. Encouraged by his teacher, he took up the violin, initially as a passion rather than a career aspiration. Despite an early acceptance to a biology program at South Carolina State University, he made the bold decision to pursue music instead, setting him on an unexpected but fulfilling journey.
Gray’s breakthrough came with his appointment as Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, a position that granted him a platform to champion overlooked repertoire. Recording with the RSNO, an orchestra whose albums he once purchased as a high school student, was a full-circle moment. “I never imagined I’d be conducting and recording with them,” he reflects. His albums have focused on composers of the African diaspora, including William Grant Still, Florence Price, Ulysses Kay, and Margaret Bonds—figures whose works, he believes, deserve a more central place in the classical canon. “Their music is woven from the same folk traditions I grew up with,” he explains. “It’s not about a crusade; it’s about embracing music that feels like home.”
When asked about his musical influences, Gray cites a wide-ranging upbringing that exposed him to spirituals, jazz, hip-hop, Broadway, and classical music—sometimes all in the same day. “I don’t separate genres,” he says. “For me, it’s always been about seeing the connections.” His conducting style is equally influenced by this fluidity, whether leading Debussy or William Grant Still. A striking example, he notes, is the trumpet solo in Debussy’s La Mer—a phrase that, in another context, could be mistaken for a blues riff. “Music is interconnected,” he emphasizes. “That’s what excites me.”
Among his most memorable performances is the world premiere of Tazewell Thompson’s opera Jubilee with Seattle Opera, a work exploring African American history. But it was an unexpected 10 a.m. school performance that left the deepest impression. Initially skeptical about whether young audiences would engage with the opera’s 19th-century language and themes, he was stunned by their reaction. “You could hear a pin drop,” he says. “They gasped, laughed, groaned—it was electrifying. It reminded me why we do this.”
This season, Gray’s schedule is as diverse as his influences. He has conducted the Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and Minnesota Orchestra, among others. He will also appear with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and return to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for multiple engagements. “Every orchestra is different,” he notes. “I try to connect with the people first—because at the end of the day, we’re conducting people, not just instruments.”
Beyond the podium, Gray is deeply invested in community engagement and visibility. Though his career has taken him around the world, he aspires to strengthen connections with local audiences. “We talk about the power of music, but we don’t always leverage it fully,” he says. “I want to create spaces where our work extends beyond the concert hall.”
His career has not been without challenges, particularly in gaining visibility. When his RSNO appointment was announced during the pandemic, most of his work was behind closed doors—recording sessions rather than live performances. “Nobody was seeing what I was doing,” he says. “It was frustrating, but I’m making up for lost time.”
Looking ahead, Gray hopes to play a key role in making African diasporic composers a staple of classical programming. “If a German conductor can grow up immersed in their country’s folk music and champion composers from that tradition, why shouldn’t I do the same with mine?” he asks. “This music belongs in the canon, and I want to help bring it there.”
Outside of music, Gray’s passions reveal his deep connection to the natural world. A former beekeeper, he credits honeybees with leading him to conducting. “Everything I learned about leadership, I learned from bees,” he jokes. If not a musician, he imagines he’d be a park ranger, spending his days immersed in nature. His daily routine reflects this love for movement—yoga and a morning run set the tone for his day.
For Gray, success isn’t measured by titles or accolades but by the freedom to be his authentic self. “The world is noisy, and there are so many forces acting upon us,” he says. “As long as I have the space to be the person I’m most comfortable with—the person I like the most—then I’ve succeeded.”
Through his work on the podium and beyond, Kellen Gray is shaping a legacy that bridges the past and future, championing underrepresented composers while forging deep connections with audiences worldwide.
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