Tianyi Lu won first prize at both the 2020 Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition and the 2020 International Conducting Competition “Guido Cantelli” in Italy. She was subsequently appointed conductor in residence with the Stavanger Symphony in Norway, where she served through the 2023–24 season. She has also served as principal conductor of the St Woolos Sinfonia and assistant conductor of the Melbourne Symphony. A former Dudamel Fellow, she made her Hollywood Bowl debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2021 and her Disney Hall debut in 2023. Other recent highlights include her BBC Proms debut with the BBC Symphony, as well as appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, London Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, the Hallé, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, Helsinki Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and Sydney Symphony.

This season, Lu debuts with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, National Symphony, New World Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and Utah Symphony, among others, and tours with the Orchestre National de Belgique. She also returns to perform with the Residentie Orkest, City of Birmingham Symphony, Lahti Symphony, and Pacific Symphony. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

The Chinese-born New Zealander completed her master of music in orchestral conducting with distinction at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where she now serves on the board of directors. She is also an alumna of the Hart Institute for Women Conductors at the Dallas Opera.

María Dueñas is a Deutsche Grammophon artist, having released Beethoven and Beyond in 2023, which won the Opus Klassik award as Young Artist of the Year. She has also won top prizes in the senior division of the Menuhin Competition, the Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition, and the Zhuhai International Mozart Competition. Her most recent recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices and related works brought her recognition as Young Artist and Instrumentalist of the Year at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards.

As a soloist, Dueñas has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, NHK Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and Orchestre de Paris, among others. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, she performed at the Hollywood Bowl’s 100th anniversary celebration, and premiered Gabriela Ortiz’s violin concerto. Highlights this season include debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic at Salzburg Mozart Week, the New York Philharmonic, and West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in October 2019.

Dueñas is also a composer and has written cadenzas for most of her concerto repertoire. As an actress, she appeared in Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Measures for a Funeral. Dueñas plays the Giambattista Guadagnini violin of 1779 from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben as well as the Stradivarius “Michelangelo” of 1718, on generous loan from the Karolina Blaberg Foundation.