The Boston Symphony Orchestra has appointed Yiran Zhao and Jakub Przybycień as Assistant Conductors for two-year terms beginning with the 2026–27 season.

The two will succeed Samy Rachid and Anna Handler, whose tenures conclude at the end of the Tanglewood season this summer. Both will make their BSO conducting debuts during the 2027 Tanglewood season.

Zhao, born and raised in China, served as a 2025 Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, conducting 15 concerts with the TMC Orchestra, vocal fellows, and chamber ensembles. She will make her BSO subscription concert debut on April 3, 2026, sharing the program with Music Director Andris Nelsons and fellow 2025 TMC Conducting Fellow Leonard Weiss. She currently serves as a Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jim Ross.

Przybycień served as Assistant Conductor of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia from 2023 to 2025. Recent debuts include the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra. During the 2025–26 season, he appears with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia, Sinfonia Rotterdam, Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, Arctic Philharmonic, Zielona Gora Philharmonic, and Szczecin Philharmonic. Przybycień is winner of the 2025 Ernst Von Schuch Conducting Prize and was a finalist for the 2025 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award.

The BSO Assistant Conductor Program, established by Seiji Ozawa in 1986, has launched the careers of numerous conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Spano, Shi-Yeon Sung, and Anna Handler, who recently became Kapellmeister of Deutsche Oper Berlin and incoming Chief Conductor of Ulster Orchestra.

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