Junping Qian

Conductor Junping Qian, having just completed his second year as the Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, also serves as a Visiting Faculty member at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

His recent engagements, aside from his busy schedule with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, notably, include conducting the Covid-19 recovery rehearsal camp of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, a China Tour with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Teatro del Giglio Lucca, his South American debut with Orchestra SODRE in Montevideo, Uruguay, his North American professional debut with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, an open-air summer concert in “Summer Classics” Festival Sibiu and re-invitations from Toronto, Macau, Kunming, Xi’An, Bucharest, Iasi, and Tirgus Mures. He served as the Strategic Advisor and Residential Artist of the Shanghai & Royal College of Music London Joint Institute from 2018 to 2020.

Junping was the First Prize winner of the 2017 Bucharest International Conducting Competition and will be performing with orchestras throughout Eastern Europe between 2018 and 2020. He won the 3rd Prize and the Orchestra Prize in 7th Edition of Lovro Matacic Competition in Zagreb, Croatia. He has won 3rd Prize of Hans von Bülow Conducting Competition in 2021. He is the 2018 recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Conducting Scholarship and is supported by the Solti Foundation. Last summer, he was invited to participate in the prestigious Tanglewood Conducting Seminar, the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, CA. Junping was one of the final winners of the prestigious INTERKATION-Conductors Workshop in Berlin, Germany, where he worked with Maestro Simone Young and Das Kritische Orchester. He was the Assistant Conductor of the new opera "Marco Polo" at the Guangzhou Opera House in April 2018, where he worked closely with composer Enjott Schneider, director Kaspar Holten, tenor Peter Lodahl, Maestro Muhai Tang, and the Macau Orchestra. Junping led the Iasi Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour celebrating the 100th Anniversary since the formation of Romania and the end of World War I. After graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music, he studied conducting with Mark Gibson at the University of Cincinnati, Michael Jinbo of the Pierre Monteux Conducting School, and was the last private student of legendary pedagogue Otto Werner Mueller. He has been mentored by British conductor Daniel Harding since 2014 and Sir Roger Norrington since 2019. He graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin under Professors Christian Ehwald, Hans-Dieter Baum, and Manuel Nawri.

His first appearance as a conductor was at the tender age of 10 with his school choir. He later became the Assistant Conductor of the Shanghai Youth Orchestra of the Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music until his graduation in 2009. Junping made his European conducting debut at the Verbier Festival in the summer of 2012, where he met Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit, who praised him of "having such a simple and natural technique".

Junping moved to Europe in 2015 and has since stood at the podium of Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt (Oder), Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Neubrandengurger Philharmonie, Berlin Sinfonietta, Croatian National TV&Broadcast Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, NCPA Orchestra Beijing, Shenzhen Symphony Orchstra, Guangzhou Orchestra, Xi`an Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Festival Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Gyor Philharmonic Orchestra, Radom Chamber Orchestra, Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie, among others. In the 2017-2018 season, he served as the Interim Staff Conductor of The Diplomatic Choir of Berlin.

Junping is also an accomplished violist, having won many prizes and scholarships including Second Place at the 2006 Johansen International Competition in Washington D.C., as well as First Place at both the China National Viola Competition in 2007 and the Morningside Music Bridge Chamber Music Competition in 2008. In the summer of 2016, he left his tutti position at the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position he won in 2014, to pursue conducting full-time.

More: junpingqian.com