A classic double Grammy

It happened when she was at her home in New Jersey.

Conductor Zhang Xian got a phone message from her colleague, telling her that she had won two Grammy Awards.

"I was very surprised and excited. Since there is a 3-hour difference between the west and east coasts, I didn't watch the ceremony on TV, but I saw it on YouTube," says Zhang in an email interview with China Daily.

Zhang is currently in her seventh season as music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, which is currently in its 100th anniversary season.

The 65th annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held in Los Angeles on Feb 5. Zhang's recording, Letters for the Future released by Deutsche Grammophon, with the classical string trio Time For Three and the Philadelphia Orchestra, took home the awards in the "best contemporary classical composition" (specifically Contact by composer Kevin Puts) and "best classical instrumental solo" categories.

Time For Three is a classically trained, genre-crossing string trio comprising violinist Nick Kendall, double-bassist Ranaan Meyer and violinist Charles Yang. All three are also vocalists.

"Three months ago, when I learned about the nomination, I felt honored, but never expected to win the awards," says Zhang, who is also principal guest conductor of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and conductor emeritus of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, following her tenure as their music director from 2009 to 2016. "The awards remind me of the rehearsals and recording of the album and, most importantly, inspire me to move forward. We worked very hard every day, and all the musicians deserve a big applause."

The award-winning album, Letters for the Future, was recorded over two days at Verizon Hall, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, in September 2021. The album comprises world premiere recordings of two technically demanding and musically virtuosic concerti for trio and orchestra by two Pulitzer Prizewinning composers, written 15 years apart but both commissioned for the group: Jennifer Higdon's Concerto 4-3, which is a three-movement concerto, and Kevin Puts' newly written, Contact. The latter was inspired by the unknown. "The word 'contact' has gained new resonance during these years of isolation," Puts says in a news release. "It is my hope that this concerto might be heard as an expression of yearning for this fundamental human need."

"On the first day, we recorded Contact, which is a very demanding piece. I would say it's the most challenging music piece of my career. On the second day, we recorded Concerto 4-3," recalls Zhang. "Those two musical works were written particularly for Time For Three. Contact was very new back then, and I remember that we had our first rehearsal on piano at my house during the summer of 2021.Kevin is also a pianist, so he played with musicians of Time For Three, and I was the conductor. It is a beautiful memory."

Born in Liaoning province's Dandong and exposed to music as a child, Zhang learned to play piano at the age of 3 with her mother, who majored in music education in college, after Zhang's father repaired an old piano for her. Her given name, Xian, means "string" — a reference to her parents' hope she'd become a musician.

Zhang studied piano at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at age 11 and stayed at the conservatory until she moved to the United States in 1998 to complete her doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music.

Her professional conducting debut was unplanned. The junior at the Beijing-based Central Conservatory of Music stood in for her teacher, conductor Wu Lingfen, who'd fallen ill, to conduct The Marriage of Figaro at the China National Opera House in 1995.Though people wondered what the 22-year-old woman was capable of back then, Zhang soon gained recognition and continued to make history in the male-dominated field.

She took the first prize at the Maazel/Vilar Conductors' Competition in 2002. She became US conductor Lorin Maazel's assistant at the New York Philharmonic that year, and became the Philharmonic's assistant conductor in 2004.

She served as the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra's music director from 2005 to 2007 and has been music director of the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan since 2009.

In 2015, Zhang became the first female principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and she was appointed as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's music director in 2016. She also has a long relationship with the New York Philharmonic and regularly works with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

"More women from Asian countries are joining the profession. They are very talented and well-trained. They are adding their own voices in the field," says Zhang.

With a hectic schedule this year, she will perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and will also perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center this summer.

The conductor says that, over the next two years, she hopes to do more operas, including Tosca with the Norwegian National Opera and making her debut with the Metropolitan Opera next year.

She is keen on introducing Chinese music to a global audience. On Jan 21, she conducted the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with a concert marking the Year of the Rabbit, performing music pieces by Chinese composers, such as Spring Festival Overture by Li Huanzhi, Violin Concerto No 1 by Zhao Jiping and Er Huang by Chen Qigang.

The conductor initiated the first Lunar New Year celebration five years ago, and this festive tradition gets more vibrant with each iteration, according to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

The conductor has returned to her homeland regularly since 2008, as classical music continues to gain popularity in China.

"It's been four years since I performed in China and hopefully I will return this fall," she says.