Judith Yan is the Artistic Director of Guelph Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of Opera on the Avalon. She has held Staff Conductor positions at San Francisco Opera (SFO), Canadian Opera Company, and The National Ballet of Canada, and her career has taken her internationally, conducting for major companies in Germany, Australia, Poland, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand, and the US.
While with SFO, her performances of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress for SFO (Merola) was included in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Top Ten Classical Performances of the Year. Prior to SFO, she served as the first Conductor-in-Residence of the Canadian Opera Company, where her performance of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia garnered critical acclaim.
As a conductor of ballet, she has conducted over 90 performances for The National Ballet of Canada. For Korean National Ballet, she has conducted Grigorovich’s La Bayadère, Swan Lake, and Giselle. Since 2010, she has had a close association with Hong Kong Ballet (HKB), conducting the company’s production of Swan Lake as well as premiering all three of the company’s most recent productions of The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Don Quixote.
Recent performances include two world-premieres: Jack Perla’s An American Dream for Seattle Opera and John Estacio’s Ours for Opera on the Avalon (OOTA). 2017/18 season includes Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Le Corsaire for HKB, Swan Lake for Korean National Ballet, and a return to West Australian Ballet for the premiere of Krzysztof Pastor’s Dracula.