Internationally acclaimed conductor Junping Qian is praised for his natural musicianship, spellbinding interpretations and easy rapport with the orchestras he works with. He was the First Prize winner of the 2017 Bucharest International Conducting Competition, the 3rd Prize and the Orchestra Prize in 7th Edition of Lovro Matacic Competition in Zagreb, Croatia, the 3rd Prize of Hans von Bülow Conducting Competition in 2021 and 3rd Prize of Princess Astrid Conducting Competition in Norway in 2022. During 2018-2020, he served as the Assistant Conductor of Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Strategic Advisor and Residential Artist of Shanghai & Royal College of Music London Joint Institute. In 2022/23 season, he serves as the rotating assistant conductor of Orchestre de Paris. During 2024-2026, Junping Qian serves as the Principal Guest Conductor of Satu Mare Philharmonic Orchestra Dinu Lipatti.
In 2023/24 season, he made debuts with BBC Symohony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Chengdu Symphony Orchestra; notably with the Minnesota Orchestra, he created the Lunar New Year project from scratch and has been in charge of this project for 3 consecutive years; he completed Brahms Symphony Cycle with China National Center of Performing Arts Orchestra along with world-renowned conductors Daniele Gatti, Myung-whun Chung and Lü Jia; in May 2024, he conducted Guangzhou Opera House’s opera “Marco Polo”; in July, he serves as conductor in Morningside Music Bridge
Other notable activities include 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. He was also proud to be invited to lead the Iasi Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour celebrating the 100th anniversary since the formation of Romania
Besides frequent collaboations with all major orchestras in China, Junping has conducted Konzerthausorchester Berlin, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, BBC Symohony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Roma Sinfonietta, Kammerorchester Basel, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Minnesota Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Rheinische Staatsorchester Koblenz, Berlin Sinfonietta, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt (Oder), Neubrandengurger Philharmonie, Radom Chamber Orchestra, Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Festival Orchestra, Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie, Croatian National Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra, among others.
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, Sir Roger Norrington since 2019 and Christoph Eschenbach since 2022. 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.
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, 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 has studied with Lawrence Foster in Katowice, Poland in 2023 and also with Jaap van Zweden in Gstaad Menuhin Festival in 2024.
Junping started his musical career as 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.