Artistic Director/ Chief Conductor of The Sichuan Orchestra of China (Sichuan Symphony) since December 2016, DARRELL ANG opened the London Philharmonic’s 2019-20 season at the newly-refurbished Eastbourne Congress Theatre. He is also a regular guest at the Mariinsky Theatre – having caught the attention of Valery Gergiev – where he conducts symphonic concerts and opera in St. Petersburg as well as at the new Mariinsky Theatre in Vladivostok. Last season, he made return engagements to the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Württemberg Philharmonie, Queensland Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano, Munich Radio, Barcelona Symphony; and conducted debuts with Moscow’s State Academic Symphony “Evgeny Svetlanov”, Teatro Communale di Bologna, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Novosibirsk Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony, Bilkent Symphony, Orchestre National de Montpellier and Denmark’s Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester. His growing operatic profile includes recent performances of Don Giovanni and Rigoletto at the Mariinsky, Carmen at the Estonian National Opera, Die Zauberflöte and Nijinsky’s Tagebuch in Bordeaux, Der fliegende Holländer in Singapore and Così fan tutte in Toulon.

Darrell Ang also made auspicious debuts and return visits to over twenty orchestras across the globe – including Vienna’s Austrian Radio Symphony, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, a tour through New Zealand with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Antalya Symphony, USA’s Pacific Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, NCPA Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de la UAEH (Mexico), Estonian National Symphony, the Manila Symphony, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Also a regular recording artist of uncommon pedigree, Darrell has scored many successes for the Naxos label: his first disc – a recording of music by the Chinese composers Zhou Long and Chen Yi – was nominated for a Grammy in 2016; and other discs include bestselling albums of overtures by Offenbach, Meyerbeer, Dutilleux’s Second Symphony and Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole.

In his native Singapore, he became the youngest Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra – working closely with Music Director Lan Shui – and also served as Music Director of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. In 2010 Darrell led the World Youth Olympic Games Orchestra in an internationally-televised opening ceremony of the first-ever World Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. He was also at the heart of the NTSO Academy Orchestra – an initiative which brought together the best young musicians from China, Taiwan and Singapore – leading them in high-profile concerts at the national concert halls of Beijing and Taipei. He was also Artistic Director of the Singapore International Festival of Music until 2017, which brought together top musicians from around the world to Singapore in impeccable formations alongside Asian musicians.

Darrell Ang’s uncommon gift was discovered at the age of four when he began to play the violin and piano. His natural artistic curiosity had no bounds, and soon he was inspired to study composition. As a teenager, he followed his musical dream to Vienna, and then to St. Petersburg where he studied conducting under the tutelage of Leonid Korchmar in the grand tradition of the legendary Ilya Musin. There he developed a particular passion for 20th century Russian music which – along with French and contemporary Asian repertoire – remains central to his artistic identity. Darrell continued his studies at Yale under the tutelage of Shinik Hahm, becoming its first Conducting Fellow. He took all three top awards at the 50th Besançon International Young Conductors’ Competition – Grand Prize, Audience Prize and Orchestra Prize – leading to the music directorship of the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne (2012 – 2015). Three years later, Darrell was selected to join the prestigious International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation and invited to take on residencies with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Lorin Maazel and Esa-Pekka Salonen were his mentors, to whom he remains grateful for their invaluable advice and support.

Since then he has cultivated regular relationships with some of world’s top orchestras, including Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique du Strasbourg, Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “Giuseppe Verdi”, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, Berlin Radio Symphony, Munich Symphony, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Luxemburg Chamber Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra Madrid, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Taiwan Philharmonic, NHK and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestras – among many others. In the UK, he also regularly conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he has conducted the world premiere of a new work by Tan Dun, as well as regular return invitations to the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia. Also a composer of note, his “Fanfare for a Frazzled Earth” was commissioned by German chemicals company LANXESS and premiered by the Singapore National Youth Orchestra in 2011. Darrell Ang is fluent in English, German, French, Italian, Russian and Chinese.