The first time Xian Zhang conducted the Seattle Symphony, it was 2008. She presented a score by Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev live in concert while Sergei Eisenstein’s historical drama Alexander Nevsky flashed on the screen. In the intervening years, Zhang has returned to work with Seattle Symphony numerous times, and now, Zhang has risen to the role of the Symphony’s Music Director. She is beginning a 5-year contract in the Symphony’s 2025/2026 season.
Zhang joins as Seattle Symphony’s first woman Music Director and first person of color to work in the role. She is also the first woman to lead a major West Coast symphony.
Zhang still remembers that first collaboration clearly, as she had expected it to be a difficult undertaking. “I still remember how I felt like it was actually easy to put together, and the choir, the Seattle Symphony Chorale, was really fantastic,” Zhang recalled. “I was very impressed.”
Every return to Seattle Symphony has been a pleasure for Zhang. “Each time we made music, it was very organic and natural,” she said. “That’s a very good sign that the conductor and the orchestra work well together.”
That doesn’t always happen for guest conductors. “Sometimes, a great conductor might be with a group that’s not very comfortable with him or her, and then it’s difficult, almost like heavy weightlifting,” Zhang said. “But in my personal experience, the music-making and the way we do things has always felt effortless.”
Zhang has been drawn to music since childhood. “I went to many concerts when I was in school,” she reminisced. “I don’t remember any conducting per se, but I was fascinated by how the orchestra sounded and how the music came to be.”
She received her first opportunity to conduct at age twenty from her conducting teacher, for whom she played piano for a year prior. “I always felt and think that this is the case with many conductors; we were pushed into opportunities that were created by chance or by mentors who really wanted to help us,” Zhang said. “So I ended up conducting two performances, and those were my first public appearances anywhere.”
Before this chance jump into conducting, Zhang first trained as a pianist. “I started when I was three with my parents, and I tried to be a concert pianist until I met my conducting teacher when I was 16,” she said. “I changed quite young.”
And she became convinced that conducting is the best fit for her talents. “What really compelled me to become a conductor is the sound of the orchestra,” she said. “It is so rich, layered and powerful. It’s beyond any piano or what any solo instrument can produce, that’s what compelled me.”
Zhang previously served as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for nine seasons. “I have hired, in the past five to six years, about one-third of the musicians in the orchestra,” she said. “That’s a lot of chairs that we have filled. And the orchestra right now feels like a very different orchestra compared to eight or nine years ago when I first joined the New Jersey Symphony.”
In particular, Zhang has aimed to increase diversity. “Representation of female composers has risen from ten percent to nearly 40 percent.,” she said. “The Lunar New Year concert, which I started in 2019, has really become an audience favorite.”
In addition, Zhang recalls several other accomplishments. “During the pandemic in 2021, we had a virtual season, which included creating a series of concert films called Emerge,” she said. “We played concerts, but it was made into sort of an art film, not just a standard concert film of the orchestra playing on the stage, but a mixture of people, sceneries, street views, and shots taken from the neighborhoods of Newark, New Jersey. We were very happy and proud to have fun producing that film.”
She also helped launch the Colton Fellowship. “It is sponsored by the Colton Family here in New Jersey, and was set up to promote young professional musicians to help advance their careers,” she said. “These are musicians from underrepresented backgrounds.”
Under this fellowship, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra hires two or three players each season who receive the same salary and benefits as other musicians. “Their contract is one year, extendable into two, and during the pandemic, we even extended someone for three years,” Zhang said. “We have actually expanded this program to conducting fellows and the auditions have been very high-level. In a way, it’s a new adventure for the symphony, something that we have never really done in the past.”
During her New Jersey tenure, Zhang has also traveled as a guest conductor. “Conductors used to stay with their main orchestras, mostly putting in work with the orchestra, rehearsing and performing all year round,” Zhang explained. “But for the past twenty years or so, travel has been a big part of the job.”
She says that travel is almost a standard of success for conductors. “Orchestras play many more concerts now, as many as 49 weeks in the season, and audiences do want to see different conductors,” she said. “It’s also fun, and I consider traveling a treat, or a perk of the job.”
Now, coming to Seattle, Zhang is looking forward to the area’s natural beauty. “I remember the first time I visited, I went to a rainforest upstate,” she recounted. “The water is beautiful. The food is great. It has so much to offer.”
She also finds Seattle to be culturally vibrant. “It’s a very open and diverse environment, and for myself, being Asian American, I find that culture and atmosphere very attractive, and I feel very comfortable there,” she said. “I really look forward to exploring all of Seattle and Washington.”
And Zhang is especially excited to promote the Seattle Symphony. “There are a lot of young professionals who are, I think, interested in expanding their experience musically and artistically,” she said. “I hope to attract a much wider audience and help the orchestra become more of an attraction in downtown Seattle.”
