Jiannan Cheng made her European debut conducting and working with the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt, and the Munich Hochschule Symphony Orchestra. Cheng was a candidate for the 2017 German Conductors’ Award, and the second prize winner of the 2016 4x4 Competition for Composers and Conductors. Her teachers and mentors include world-renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, and Marcus Bosch, to whom she served as an assistant in Heidenheim, Germany, and led a successful performance of Verdi’s Nabucco. Previously, she was the conducting fellow of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Miami Symphony Orchestra.

Cheng joined the faculty of Rowan University in the fall of 2020 where she directs the Rowan University Symphony Orchestra, serves as the conductor for the opera productions, and teaches conducting. Previously, she was the director of orchestral ensembles at Fordham University, and served on conducting faculty at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she led orchestra performances and served as the music director of opera productions. Cheng completed her undergraduate studies at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She earned her Master’s degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. Currently, Cheng is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in orchestral conducting at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.