“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

2024/25 will mark the GRAMMY® and Emmy Award-winning conductor Xian Zhang’s ninth season as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Starting in 2025/26, she will become the Music Director of Seattle Symphony. Following tenure as Music Director of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano between 2009-16, she continues as their Conductor Emeritus.

Under Zhang’s artistic leadership, NJ Symphony won two awards at the mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards in 2022 for their concert films, including “EMERGE” which was directed by Yuri Alves and co-produced with DreamPlay Films. Since her debut at Benaroya Hall in 2008, Zhang has been a long-term collaborator of Seattle Symphony and was one of the first conductors with whom they returned to the stage after the height of the pandemic.

This 2024/25 season sees Zhang return to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to conduct David McVicar’s acclaimed production of Puccini’s Tosca, starring Aleksandra Kurzak and Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. Zhang’s Met debut last season with Madama Butterfly received unanimous glowing reviews including the New York Classical Review:

“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.”

Alongside her titled commitments, Zhang is in high demand as a guest conductor. She appears regularly with Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, returning to both for subscription concerts this season. Her recording with Philadelphia Orchestra and Time for Three, Letters for The Future (released 2022 on Deutsche Grammophon), won multiple GRAMMY™ awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Kevin Puts’ Contact) and Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

Following a successful collaboration at the 2023 Tanglewood Festival, Zhang also returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra this season. Other 2024/25 season highlights include Montreal Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, NAC Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, and the Orchestra of St Luke’s, with whom she recently stepped in to conduct at Carnegie Hall (Brahms’ German Requiem).

Zhang continues to enjoy good relationships with many leading orchestras worldwide, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Houston Symphony, St Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra.

Her inspiring work with young musicians has led to numerous collaborations with the orchestras of The Juilliard School, who awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2023. She returns to Juilliard this season, in addition to engagements at Aspen Festival and with the New World Symphony, having recently worked at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West.

Zhang previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and also the 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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