Xian Zhang, the gifted Chinese-American conductor, made an impressive debut with the Grant Park Orchestra Friday night at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. The 36-year-old Zhang is all over the international podium circuit these days, having begun her tenure as music director of Milan's Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi last season following a five-year stint as assistant and then associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic. So well-received was she with the musicians and audience at her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2009 that management re-engaged her for subscription concerts this December.
The symphonic action at the Grant Park Music Festival will continue at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday when Hans Graf, music director of the Houston Symphony, returns to conduct a program of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. (Source: July 11, 2010|By John von Rhein, classical music critic, Chicago Tribune, Jul 11, 2010).