Bancroft's career has been on a steep upward trajectory. He rose to international prominence in 2018 after winning first prize and the audience prize at the Malko Competition for young conductors. In late November 2021, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Conductor of the Year award. In 2023, he will take up the position of chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
In the fall of 2020, Bancroft began his tenure as chief conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Since winning the Malko Conducting Competition, he has made his debut with several international orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, Rai Torino, and the Gothenburg and Iceland Symphony Orchestras. In the 2021/22 season, Bancroft made his debut with the Ensemble InterContemporain and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In North America, he has also appeared with the Atlanta, Seattle, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras. He made his Chinese debut in Beijing, conducting the NCPA Orchestra.
Bancroft is keenly interested in new music. He has performed with, among others, the acclaimed Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam, worked as Pierre Boulez's assistant in Los Angeles, and premiered works by Sofia Gubaidulina, John Cage, James Tenney, and Anne LeBaron. He has also collaborated closely with improvisational musicians such as trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and bassist Charlie Haden. He has also worked closely with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and bassist Charlie Haden in the field of improvisational music.
Born in Los Angeles, Bancroft studied trumpet at the California Institute of the Arts, with minors in harp, flute, and cello, as well as Ghanaian music and dance. He later moved on to study orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he completed his degree in orchestral conducting. He has pursued further studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
