Jiannan Cheng is the 2nd Prize winner of the 2024 Romania Orchestra’s Conducting Competition, a finalist in the Arthur Nikisch Conducting Competition, and a second prize winner of the 4×4 Competition for Composers and Conductors 2016. Her teachers and mentors have included such world-renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, and Marcus Bosch. In 2024/25, Cheng will serve as a Cover Conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other past professional positions include Conducting Fellow of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Miami Symphony Orchestra. She studied conducting at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the University of Washington in Seattle, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich.