Ryan joined the St. Mary’s staff in September 2017. He did his graduate work in choral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the University of Delaware, and his undergraduate study at Princeton University. Ryan has been involved in church music since high school, and over the past two decades has sung, played organ and piano, and conducted choirs in a variety of churches. Before moving to Richmond from Philadelphia in 2015, Ryan served as organist and choir director at Summit Presbyterian Church, assistant conductor of Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, an adjunct faculty member at The College of New Jersey, music director of the Newark Symphony Chorus, and maintained an active schedule as a professional singer. Since moving to Richmond, he has been the artistic director of both the Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale and the Richmond Concert Chorale and served for a year as interim organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. A native of Wilmington, Del., Ryan lives in Richmond with his wife Kate, a chemistry professor at VCU, and their cat, Rocky.