Tianyi Lu is making a name for herself across multiple continents. The young New Zealander is the Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Principal Conductor of the St. Woolos Sinfonia in the UK, and was recently a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. She has worked with the Hallé Orchestra, Dallas Opera Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Welsh College of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra. Lu was an active participant in Daniele Gatti’s esteemed masterclasses with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in June 2018. In January 2018, she conducted an education concert featuring Dvořák Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and returned to the UK for a concert of Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 with the Gwent Youth Orchestra and to conduct the Brahms Double Concerto with St. Woolos Sinfonia in April 2018. She was selected to attend the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors with the Dallas Opera in 2016 and was subsequently invited back to assist on their production of La Traviata and to conduct a mainstage concert of Donizetti in 2017.

Upcoming highlights include concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, concerts in Lisbon and on tour in Portugal with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, a family concert with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, performances with the Bucharest Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.

Lu has worked closely with Sir Andrew Davis, Carlo Rizzi, Gustavo Dudamel, Susanna Mälkki, Matthias Pintscher, Simone Young and Carlo Montanaro. In previous masterclass and assistant roles, Lu has received invaluable advice by conductors and ensembles including Bernard Haitink as part of the Lucerne Festival Masterclass, Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård and Xian Zhang with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In 2014 she was voted a finalist at the twelfth Interaktion Dirigentenwerkstatt des Kritischen Orchesters by players from the Berlin Philharmonic and from other top orchestras in Germany.

Lu’s repertoire interests include late romantic (Mahler, Bruckner, Strauss), Russian composers (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky) as well as finding new interpretations of the Germanic canon (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms). Her experience in opera is expanding, especially in French and Italian repertoire. Her broad musical interests and her passion for contemporary music led to her studying electronic music composition as well as to studies in baroque flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord. She has been involved in the Sistema Aotearoa programme in New Zealand, inspired by the Venezuelan model, and she is strongly committed to education and outreach projects.

Born in Shanghai, Lu’s family subsequently moved to New Zealand. She completed her Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours at the University of Auckland with Uwe Grodd and Karen Grylls, before studying at the University of Melbourne with John Hopkins. In 2015 Lu completed her Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting with Distinction at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she studied with David Jones.