The Seattle Symphony welcomes a new Assistant Conductor, three musicians and an Assistant Librarian who have their official start with the orchestra at the beginning of this 2026/2027 season.  

Malaysian-born Douglas F. King Assistant Conductor Tengku Irfan has appeared around the world as a conductor, pianist and composer, and has been praised by The New York Times as “eminently cultured” and possessing “sheer incisiveness and power.” He made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting The Juilliard Orchestra in April 2024 and has appeared as a guest conductor with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra on multiple occasions. A recipient of the Robert Craft Igor Stravinsky Grant in Orchestral Conducting and the Bayreuth Stipendium Award, Irfan also worked as assistant and cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony and National Symphony Orchestra, among others. He graduated with a master’s in Orchestral Conducting at Juilliard, having studied with David Robertson. Prior to his conducting studies, he was a double major in piano and composition. As a pianist, he performed with the Seattle Symphony, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, won the Aspen Music Festival 2013 ACA Concerto Competition with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and was the resident pianist for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (2014–2017). Currently, he is the founder and music director of contemporary music group Ensemble Fantasque. 

Having served as a temporary musician in the 2025/2026 season, Wayne Lee kicks off this season as a full-time member of the Seattle Symphony’s First Violin section. Lee has enjoyed a prolific career worldwide as a member of two internationally acclaimed chamber ensembles. For over a decade (2008–2019), Lee was a member of the Manhattan Piano Trio, an ensemble acclaimed as “outstanding” by The Washington Post. From 2012–2024, he performed internationally with the Formosa Quartet, including engagements at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie and Taipei’s National Concert Hall. With his Formosa Quartet colleagues, he served as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence for NYO Canada, as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, as a founder and faculty member of the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan, and as a faculty member at the Taipei Music Academy and Festival. In addition, he served on the violin faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, among other teaching posts. Lee is also co-founder and co-artistic director of the Piedmont Chamber Music Festival, held in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Brendan Shea also joins the orchestra’s First Violin section this season. An active chamber musician, soloist and educator, his awards include gold medals at the Coleman and Chesapeake competitions, top prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, and first place with honors at the Glazunov International Competition in Paris. Shea is a former member of the Langroise Trio, Euclid Quartet and Verona Quartet. He currently performs internationally in the Shea-Kim Duo alongside pianist Yerin Kim; the duo released a new album in January. During the summer, he performs and teaches at the Encore Chamber Music Institute, the Chroma International Music Festival in Hungary and the Zephyr International Chamber Festival and Academy in Italy. 

Vaynu Kadiyali joins the Seattle Symphony this season as the Robert & Clodagh Ash Piccolo and Third Flute. He previously held piccolo positions with the North Carolina Symphony and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Highlights in these previous positions included teaching and performing across North Carolina as a part of North Carolina State University’s education programming, and performing in the 2025 Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. He has also performed as Piccolo with the Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee symphony orchestras, and with the San Francisco Symphony. 

Finally, the Seattle Symphony welcomes Brianna Slone as Assistant Librarian. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and a master’s in Instrumental Conducting, from University of Georgia and Georgia State University, respectively. Before transitioning to orchestra library work, Slone spent nine years as a band and orchestra director at Hillgrove High School, The Westminster Schools Atlanta, Emory University and Lakeside School. She is passionate about supporting musicians behind the scenes and enjoys the unique blend of organization, collaboration and problem solving that orchestra library work provides. 

With every new beginning, there comes an end, and we would also like to acknowledge the decades of musical contributions made by three musicians who played their final notes with the orchestra at the previous season’s end: Dr. Robert Wallace Clarinet Laura DeLuca, Viola Timothy Hale and First Violin Jeannie Wells Yablonsky. DeLuca and Hale joined the orchestra in 1986, and Yablonsky joined in 1997. Their tenures spanned nearly three and four decades, and we are forever grateful for their dedication, artistry and lasting contributions to the orchestra.