Xian Zhang has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, effective from the start of the 2016/17 season. She becomes the first female conductor to hold a titled position with a BBC orchestra.

The three-year appointment follows her acclaimed BBC Prom with the Orchestra in the summer, which saw the Financial Times remark on the performance’s ​“outgoing certainty of vision” and The Guardian praise ​“a Rachmaninov Second of grand passions”. 

On making the announcement, BBC NOW’s Director Michael Garvey commented: ​“I am thrilled to be welcoming Xian Zhang to the BBC NOW family. Our recent concerts with her, in Swansea and the BBC Proms, were so energised, balanced and refined — we knew that the appointment would be the perfect fit.”

The news marks Zhang’s second orchestral appointment in as many weeks — last month she was revealed as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s new Music Director, a position that also begins in September 2016.

Read the full press release.