Welcome to the Family, Sunny Xia!

Recognized for her innate musicality, compelling presence and technical precision, Chinese-born conductor Sunny Xuecong Xia’s ability to forge an immediate and captivating connection with orchestras and audiences alike has led to engagements around the country. The Seattle Symphony is excited to welcome Xia as the new Douglas F. King Assistant Conductor for its 2022/2023 season.

Xia won the position after a thorough selection process that included a working rehearsal session with the Seattle Symphony and interview with a panel representing musicians, board and staff. Her zeal and passion for contemporary music complement the Symphony’s history of bringing new music to audiences at Benaroya Hall and throughout the greater community.

As Assistant Conductor, Xia will conduct the Family Concerts, which return to in-person performances this season after nearly three years of digital-only presentations; the first is Nature Resounds (November 5), which will include Tan Dun’s participative work Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds and Angelique Poteat’s Breathe, Come Together, Embrace in addition to selections by Mozart and Debussy. Xia will also contribute to several Education and Community Engagement programs, including Link Up, which invites students in grades 3–5 to sing and play along with the Symphony in a lively concert at Benaroya Hall. And in addition to her performances and community outreach work with the Symphony, Xia will assist the Symphony’s guest conductors throughout her appointment.

Xia joins the Symphony with an already impressive resume. In the 2021/2022 season, she was selected as Conducting Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, making her festival debut with the world premiere of Marc Migó’s Dumka. She conducted a production of La bohème with the Chandler Opera Company to great success and appeared with double bassist Xavier Foley and violinist Eunice Kim in Foley’s poignant work For Justice and Peace at Mesa Arts Center. That season also found her serving as Assistant Conductor of the Phoenix Youth Symphony Orchestra and Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra. 

In the 2020/2021 season, she appeared as guest conductor with the MusicaNova Orchestra and was invited to take on the role of Assistant Conductor at the National Music Festival and Pierre Monteux Music Festival. During the 2019/2020 season, Xia was selected by Marin Alsop as a Conducting Fellow in the Peabody Conducting Workshop. She was also appointed Apprentice Conductor at the North American New Opera Workshop and served as cover conductor for the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Firelands Symphony Orchestra.

Dedicated to bringing music to the entire community, Xia organized and led concerts in retirement communities and elementary schools while in Cleveland, including an interactive presentation of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf for an audience of fourth and fifth graders

An accomplished violinist originally from Guangzhou, China, Xia relocated to Sydney, Australia, at the age of 14 on a sponsorship from the Australian String Academy. Xia holds dual master’s degrees in Orchestral Conducting and Violin Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and is currently an orchestral doctoral candidate at Arizona State University, where she’s studied under the guidance of Dr. Jeffery Meyer and Tito Muñoz.

Xia has many hobbies. When not performing, she can be found enjoying pick-up basketball games, kayaking or learning languages; she speaks Cantonese, English, German, Mandarin and Teochew, and is working on improving her French and Italian.

Seattle Symphony Family Programs are supported by The Klorfine Foundation.

The Seattle Symphony’s Family, School & Community programs are supported by 4Culture, Arakawa Foundation, Marco Argenti, Merriman-Ross Family, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Maryanne Tagney, and individual contributions to the Seattle Symphony Annual Fund.