Yiran Zhao Appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Congratulations to Yiran Zhao, a current Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow, who was named this week as one of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s new assistant conductors. She will assume the position in the 2026–27 season for a two-year term.
Zhao is slated to make her BSO conducting debut during the 2027 Tanglewood season with Music Director Andris Nelsons and Australian conductor Leonard Weiss.
About Yiran Zhao
Yiran Zhao is a Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow at Curtis, where she studies conducting with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and James Ross. Originally from Beijing, Zhao was a 2025 conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center (TMC), where she conducted in 15 concerts with the TMC Orchestra, vocal fellows, and chamber ensembles.
She is also a composer, pianist, and soprano. Zhao is a national winner of the 2024 American Prize for Composition and is currently a soprano with the Grammy Award-winning classical ensemble Apollo’s Fire and The Crossing. She holds a master of music in choral conducting from Yale School of Music and a bachelor of music in piano and theory & composition from Westminster Choir College.
Learn more about Yiran Zhao and her appointment with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
