In The Guardian (U.K.) on 12/1 (Tuesday), Tom Service reports that Xian Zhang has been named principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, effective in the 2016-17 season. This follows her appointment as music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, announced on November 16. Zhang is “the first woman to have a titled conducting role with a BBC orchestra … which means she’s going to be asked about the representation of her gender in the echelons in the conducting profession a great deal. ‘The more we ask these questions, the more people will get used to the idea of women conducting…. There are not enough girls doing it well as professionals. Once there are more, then we can judge how good they are,’ she says.” A native of Dandong, China, Zhang trained at Beijing’s Central Conservatory, moved to the U.S. in 1998, and has been music director of Milan’s Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra since 2009. “She was appointed the New York Philharmonic’s assistant conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their associate conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini chair. As she begins her Welsh role, she will be shuttling across the Atlantic—another new appointment, as music director of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, starts the same season.”
Posted December 1, 2015
Xian Zhang photo by Benjamin Ealovega
