Delyana Lazarova, conductor

Principal Guest Conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

As a conductor, Delyana Lazarova thinks of herself as a musician among musicians. Collaboration, openness, and sensitivity to the specific sound and character of every orchestra are the foundation of her work; all in service to the music. Orchestras worldwide appreciate her ability to communicate sound and create an environment in which music can simply unfold.

This season, Lazarova commences her position as Principal Guest Conductor of both Utah Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the latter with whom this summer she made her BBC Proms Debut. Further debuts in the 2025/26 season include with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Japan Century Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro de RTVE, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec. Following their successful first collaborations she will also return to the Minnesota Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Sinfónica de Tenerife, Sinfónica de Navarra and embarks on a European tour with Kammerorchester Basel.

Delyana Lazarova’s wide-ranging repertoire has been influenced by her international musical education. Born in Bulgaria, she has a natural affinity to Eastern European and Russian repertoire (Dvořák, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Bartók) but feels equally at home in the Viennese Classical period, influenced by her studies in Switzerland. She is also passionate about music from the 20 th and 21 st centuries leading to, in the 2024/25 season beginning her role as Artistic Partner of ROCO in Houston, a chamber orchestra specialising in contemporary music. Further complimenting her rapport with contemporary music, Delyana Lazarova’s first CD, recorded with the Hallé, was released in October 2023 and includes works by Bulgarian composer, Dobrinka Tabakova.

In recent seasons, Delyana Lazarova has worked with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Netherlands Philharmonic, Münchener Kammerorchester, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orchestre National de France, Göteborgs Symfoniker, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Sinfonieorchester Basel , Klangforum Wien, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Estonian Festival Orchestra, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, and many more.

After winning the inaugural Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition, Lazarova served as Assistant Conductor to Sir Mark Elder at the Hallé Orchestra and Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra from 2020-2023. She also assisted Cristian Măcelaru at the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and the Orchestre National de France. In 2020, she won the James Conlon Conductor Prize at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival. Earlier successes include the NRTA Conducting Competition in 2019, and the Bruno Walter Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California in 2017 and 2018. 

Lazarova studied conducting at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) with Professor Johannes Schlaefli. She has attended numerous master classes with Bernard Haitink, Paavo Järvi, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Stringer, Robert Spano, and Matthias Pintscher among others. In addition to her master’s degree in conducting, she is an accomplished violinist with a master’s degree and performance diploma from the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana, where she studied under Mauricio Fuks and received a scholarship for artistic excellence.