“Zhang has an exceptional ear for balance, as well as the ability to draw the softest, most transparent tones imaginable from the orchestra. …With such skills and obvious audience appeal, Zhang should prove a valuable addition to the Met’s conducting staff.”

– New York Classical Review

2025/26 marks the GRAMMY^® and Emmy Award-winning conductor Xian Zhang’s tenth season as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Under her artistic leadership, NJ Symphony won two awards at the mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards in 2022 for their concert films, including “EMERGE”. As of 2025/26, she also becomes the Music Director of Seattle Symphony with whom she has been a long-term collaborator since her debut in 2008. Following her tenure as Music Director of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano between 2009-16, she continues as their Conductor Emeritus.

As a guest conductor, Zhang appears regularly with Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. Her Deutsche Grammophon recording with the latter (Letters for The Future with Time for Three, released 2022) won GRAMMY^® awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Kevin Puts’ Contact) and Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

2025/26 highlights include returns to Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, St Louis Symphony, and National Arts Centre Ottawa. In Europe, she returns to Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with a performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and makes her debut at Finnish National Opera conducting Tosca. This follows her huge success at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she recently conducted Madama Butterfly (2023/24) and Tosca (2024/25) to great acclaim:

“The success of Kurzak’s performance was due in no small part to Xian Zhang’s sensitivity as a conductor. Zhang has an exceptional ear for balance, as well as the ability to draw the softest, most transparent tones imaginable from the orchestra. […] With such skills and obvious audience appeal, Zhang should prove a valuable addition to the Met’s conducting staff.” – New York Classical Review

Other recent highlights include subscription programmes with Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Houston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestra of St Luke’s (including Brahms Requiem at Carnegie Hall), and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

Zhang previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002, she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition. She was appointed New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.

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