UCLA Symphony

Chinese-born conductor Gan Xiong has led orchestras including the Case Western Reserve University Orchestra (Cleveland, OH), Tokyo Sinfonia, UCLA Symphony, Miami Music Festival Orchestra, and Bacâu Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), and has conducted student productions of musicals including “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and “Dear Evan Hansen.” He has led youth orchestras in Shanghai including the Huangpu District Youth Orchestra and Shanghai Kite Youth Orchestra, where he served as faculty in a Baroque summer camp session and conducted its final concert in 2019.

Also a vocalist, Gan was a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus from 2021 to 2022, where he participated in a recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 3 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He holds a bachelor’s in vocal performance from Case Western Reserve University and a master’s in orchestral conducting from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. His teachers have included Kathleen Horvath, Bruce Hangen, Charles Gambetta, and Ovidiu Balan; he has participated in masterclasses with Mark Gibson, Arthur Fagen, Apo Hsu, Robert Ryker, and John Farrer. He currently pursues a doctoral degree in orchestral conducting at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, studying with Neal Stulberg.

Oliver Chan is a conductor, pianist, harpsichordist, and organist. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees in piano performance at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where he studied with Walter Ponce. He then received a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music of Cal State Long Beach, where he studied with Johannes Müller Stosch. Chan currently pursues his doctoral degree in orchestral conducting at UCLA with Neal Stulberg. Other conducting teachers have included Dean Anderson, Jacob Sustaita, Edward Dolbashian, Andreas Mitisek, Mark Gibson, Neil Varon, and Kenneth Kiesler. Chan is currently music director of the Los Angeles-based opera company Opera Italia and staff accompanist at UCLA and Santa Monica College. In November 2025, he served as assistant conductor of Opera UCLA’s production of Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw.”