Nearly 7,500 people attended the German debut of Ryan McAdams with the final concert of the Ludwigsburg Festival on July 22nd, 2023. 
 
The press were unanimous in their praise:

"The excellent orchestra of the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival played under the electrifying direction of Ryan McAdams...the "Symphonic Dances" from Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" had dynamic fine-tuning and grandiose rhythmic precision. In individual movements such as "Somewhere", "Scherzo", "Mambo", "Cha-Cha", "Cool Fugue" or "Rumble" not only 'verismo' drama flashed out, but also sound registers of jazz, symphony and opera. However, Ryan McAdams in no way exaggerated the realistically hard design of the individual scenes, but rather heated up the emotional sound events more and more. "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin fascinated with overwhelming 'espressivo' and a lavish orchestral sound.
 
The four dances from "Estancia" op. 8 by the Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera, played breathlessly with incredible speed and numerous staccato attacks, combined rhythmic and melodic fire with the magic of Argentinean folklore...sent the audience into a frenzy of enthusiasm. Big cheers."  - Merker

"In just three days, [McAdams] has obviously achieved something amazing: the sound of the orchestra is self-confident, taut and finely balanced, at times edgy and percussive." - LKZ.de 
 
"A made-to-measure debut in Germany for the American Ryan McAdams on the podium, who was completely at one with his orchestra, almost danced himself while conducting and made the music captivating and wonderfully listenable. Even the dynamic gradations he pulled out of the piñata are anything but a matter of course for an open air of this magnitude." - Stuttgarter Nachrichten