Taking her place

Zhang Xian works with celebrated orchestras around the world and has regularly performed in China since 2008.[Photo provided to China Daily]

She became the BBC National Orchestra of Wales' first female new principal guest conductor in 2015.

And she was appointed as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's music director last year.

She also has a long relationship with the New York Philharmonic and regularly works with the London Symphony and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Zhang lives in New Jersey and has returned to her homeland regularly since 2008, as classical music has continued gaining popularity in China. She gives about 100 performances a year.

On June 17 and 18, she conducted two concerts at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, performed by the China NCPA Orchestra. The performance featured Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 4 in F Minor, Op 36, Chopin's Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op 22 and Chinese composer Chen Qigang's Peking Opera-inspired piece, Er Huang. Taiwan violist Huang Hsin-yun and pianist Zhang Haochen from Shanghai played in the two concerts.

Zhang will cooperate for the first time with US soprano Renee Fleming for the Beauty of Voice: A Night with Zhang Xian and Renee Fleming concert on Saturday. The China NCPA Orchestra will present the concert of such songs as Overture to La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi, I Feel Pretty from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and Spanish Dance No 1 from La Vida Breve by Manuel de Falla.