Internationally acclaimed conductor Junping Qian is praised for his natural musicianship, spellbinding interpretations and easy rapport with the orchestras he works with. Having completed his second year as the Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during the pandemic time, he has also served as a visiting faculty member at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland from 2018 to 2020.
In the 2022-23 season, Junping made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, and the Transylvania Philharmonic Cluj. Apart from recurring invitations to orchestras in USA, UK, China and Romania, he has also been invited to assist the Orchestre de Paris during this season. In the 2023-24 season, he will make debuts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Chengdu Symphony Orchestra, while completing the Brahms Symphony cycle with the National Center of Performing Arts Orchestra Beijing alongside conductors Daniele Gatti and Myung-whun Chung, as well as music director Lu Jia. Notably, Junping created the Lunar New Year Project with the Minnesota Orchestra from scratch and has been invited to lead the project for 3 consecutive years.
Junping debuted with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Dinu Lipatti Symphony Orchestra during the 2021-22 season, as well as with several more in China, including with the National Center of Performing Arts Orchestra Beijing, Shanghai Opera House, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Macau Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Shandong Symphony Orchestra, and Qingdao Symphony Orchestra. He also returned to work with the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra and Kunming Nie’er Symphony Orchestra.
Shortly before the pandemic, Junping was invited to conduct the New York Summer Classical Music Festival Long Island and Morningside Music Bridge in Boston. Other notable activities include a tour of China 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, Kunming, Bucharest, Iasi, and Tirgus Mures.
Since moving to Europe in 2014, Junping has conducted the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre de Paris, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Rheinische Staatsorchester Koblenz, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian National TV & Broadcast Orchestra, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Roma Sinfonietta, Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Neubrandengurger Philharmonie, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt (Oder), Berlin Sinfonietta, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Toronto Festival Orchestra, Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, Gyor Philharmonic Orchestra, Szeged Symphony Orchestra, Radom Chamber Orchestra, and Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie, among others.
A personal career highlight for him was being engaged as 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. He was also proud to be invited to lead the Iasi Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour celebrating the 100th anniversary of the formation of Romania and the end of World War I. During his time in Scotland, he also served as the Strategic Advisor and Residential Artist of the Shanghai & Royal College of Music London Joint Institute from 2018 to 2020. Before that, he served as the Interim Staff Conductor of The Diplomatic Choir of Berlin.
Junping was the First Prize winner of the 2017 Bucharest International Conducting Competition which established his presence throughout Eastern Europe. He won the 3rd Prize and the Orchestra Prize in the 7th Edition of the Lovro Matacic Competition in Zagreb, Croatia, the 3rd Prize in the Hans von Bülow Conducting Competition in 2021 and 3rd Prize in the Princess Astrid Conducting Competition in Norway in 2022. He is the 2018 recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Conducting Scholarship and is supported by the Solti Foundation. In 2018, he was invited to participate in the prestigious Tanglewood Conducting Seminar, as well as 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.
After graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013, Junping studied conducting with Mark Gibson at the University of Cincinnati and Michael Jinbo of the Pierre Monteux Conducting School. He was also the last private student of legendary pedagogue Otto Werner Mueller. He has been mentored by British conductor Daniel Harding since 2014, Sir Roger Norrington since 2019 and Christoph Eschenbach during spring of 2022. He graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin in 2019 under Professors Christian Ehwald, Hans-Dieter Baum, and Manuel Nawri. His first appearance as a conductor was at the 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.
Junping started his musical career as an accomplished violist, having won many prizes and scholarships including 2nd Place at the 2006 Johansen International Competition in Washington D.C., as well as 1st 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 had won in 2014, to pursue conducting full-time.