Bancroft’s first season in Stockholm began with the orchestra’s first performance of Sven-David Sandström’s The High Mass. His second season includes performances of Mahler and Bruckner symphonies alongside world premieres by Chrichan Larson and Zacharias Wolfe, while he works with renowned soloists including Leif Ove Andsnes, Maxim Vengerov, and Víkingur Ólafsson. Bancroft made his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in August 2023, returned in 2024, and leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in these subscription-series concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall in the 2024/25 season. He made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 2024 and The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival in 2023. The 2023/24 season saw Bancroft make his debut with the San Francisco Symphony and return to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, following performances in previous seasons with the Minnesota, Baltimore, Houston, and Dallas symphony orchestras. He will also appear at the Aspen Festival and the Colorado Music Festival. 

In Europe Bancroft continues his relationships with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, with which he appears each season and recently toured to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the WDR Symphonieorchester in Cologne. Last season saw Bancroft return to the London Philharmonic and debut with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y Léon. In 2022 he made his debut at Suntory Hall in Tokyo with the New Japan Philharmonic and Midori. 

Since winning both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2018, Bancroft has conducted a number of other leading European orchestras including the Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse, City of Birmingham Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Rai Torino, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. 

Bancroft has a passion for contemporary music and has performed with Amsterdam’s acclaimed Nieuw Ensemble; assisted Pierre Boulez in a performance of his sur Incises in Los Angeles; premiered works by Sofia Gubaidulina, John Cage, James Tenney, and Anne LeBaron; and has worked closely with improvisers such as Wadada Leo Smith and Charlie Haden.  

Bancroft, who grew up in Los Angeles, studied trumpet at the California Institute of the Arts, with additional studies in harp, flute, cello, and Ghanaian music and dance. He went on to receive a Master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. While studying in Scotland, he played trumpet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on many occasions. He is a graduate of the prestigious Nationale Master Orkestdirectie run jointly by the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. His main mentors were Edward Carroll, Kenneth Montgomery, Ed Spanjaard, and Jac van Steen.