Xian Zhang

Who is Xian Zhang?

Xian Zhang, born in 1973 in Dandong, Liaoning is a Chinese American conductor.

As a child, Zhang began to learn music with her mother on a piano built by her father. She continued her music studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She began conducting studies at age 16, and received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the conservatory in Beijing. Her first conducting appearance was at age 19 with the China National Opera Orchestra in a production of The Marriage of Figaro. She served as conductor-in-residence of the China Opera House in Beijing, and conductor of the Jinfan Symphony Orchestra.

Zhang moved to the United States in 1998. She studied for her doctorate in music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and also served for four years as music director of the university's Concert Orchestra. In 2002, she shared in the first prize of the first Maazel/Vilar Conductors' Competition. She served as a cover conductor with the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to 2004. She became an assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic in 2004, and her conducting debut with the orchestra was in a Young People's Concert that year. In January 2005, she made her Philharmonic subscription debut in January 2005 on a program shared with Lorin Maazel. Maazel subsequently appointed Xian Zhang as the orchestra's associate conductor in 2005, a post she held for several years.