× Upcoming Events Salute to our Partners Thank you to our Donors Campus Maps Ticket Information Support Us Education Rentals Enhance Your Experience Board and Council Staff Past Events
Home Salute to our Partners Thank you to our Donors Campus Maps Ticket Information Support Us Education Rentals Enhance Your Experience Board and Council Staff
Xian Zhang
Conductor

GRAMMY and Emmy Award–winning conductor Xian Zhang is in her 10th season as music director of the New Jersey Symphony. With the 2025–26 season, she became music director of the Seattle Symphony, with which she has been a long-term collaborator since her debut in 2008. She is also principal guest conductor of the China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra in Beijing and conductor emeritus of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, where she held the position of music director from 2009 to 2016. As a guest conductor, she appears regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which she made her debut in 2012 at the Mann Center and her subscription debut in 2022. Her Deutsche Grammophon recording with the Philadelphians—Letters for the Future with the ensemble Time for Three, released in 2022—won two GRAMMY awards.


Highlights of Ms. Zhang’s 2025–26 season included returns to The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. In Europe she returned to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with a performance at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and made her debut at Finnish National Opera conducting Puccini’s Tosca. This followed her successes at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she conducted Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (2023–24) and Tosca (2024–25). Other recent highlights include subscription programs with the Boston, London, Houston, San Francisco, Montreal, Baltimore, and National symphonies; the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (including Brahms’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall); and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.


Ms. Zhang previously served as principal guest conductor of the Melbourne Symphony and the BBC National Orchestra and 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 the New York Philharmonic’s assistant conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming the ensemble’s associate conductor.

Xian Zhang
Conductor

GRAMMY and Emmy Award–winning conductor Xian Zhang is in her 10th season as music director of the New Jersey Symphony. With the 2025–26 season, she became music director of the Seattle Symphony, with which she has been a long-term collaborator since her debut in 2008. She is also principal guest conductor of the China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra in Beijing and conductor emeritus of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, where she held the position of music director from 2009 to 2016. As a guest conductor, she appears regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which she made her debut in 2012 at the Mann Center and her subscription debut in 2022. Her Deutsche Grammophon recording with the Philadelphians—Letters for the Future with the ensemble Time for Three, released in 2022—won two GRAMMY awards.


Highlights of Ms. Zhang’s 2025–26 season included returns to The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. In Europe she returned to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with a performance at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and made her debut at Finnish National Opera conducting Puccini’s Tosca. This followed her successes at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she conducted Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (2023–24) and Tosca (2024–25). Other recent highlights include subscription programs with the Boston, London, Houston, San Francisco, Montreal, Baltimore, and National symphonies; the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (including Brahms’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall); and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.


Ms. Zhang previously served as principal guest conductor of the Melbourne Symphony and the BBC National Orchestra and 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 the New York Philharmonic’s assistant conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming the ensemble’s associate conductor.