Delyana Lazarova, conductor

Principal Guest Conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Artistic Partner of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife

As a conductor, Delyana Lazarova sees herself as a musician among musicians. Collaboration, openness and sensitivity to the unique sound and character of each orchestra form the foundation of her work, always in service of the music. Orchestras around the world value her ability to communicate artistic ideas and create an environment in which music can unfold freely.

In the 2026/27 season, Delyana Lazarova continues her positions as Principal Guest Conductor of both the Utah Symphony and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, returning to the BBC Proms with the latter. Further highlights of the season include debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and San Diego Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester and MDR Sinfonieorchester. She also returns to Aspen, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic and many others.

Delyana Lazarova’s wide-ranging repertoire reflects both her broad musical horizons and her heritage. Born in Bulgaria, she feels a particular affinity with the Eastern European repertoire, including Dvořák, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Bartók. At the same time, she is equally at home in the Viennese Classical tradition, shaped in part by her intensive studies with Johannes Schlaefli. She is also deeply passionate about music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the 2024/25 season, she began her tenure as Artistic Partner of ROCO in Houston, a chamber orchestra renowned for its commitment to contemporary music. Her close connection to new music is further reflected in her debut recording with the Hallé Orchestra, released in October 2023 and featuring works by the Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

In recent seasons, Lazarova has appeared with leading orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Netherlands Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Sinfonieorchester Basel, and many others.

Following her victory in the inaugural Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition, Delyana Lazarova served as Assistant Conductor to Sir Mark Elder at the Hallé Orchestra and Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra from 2020 to 2023. She also assisted Cristian Măcelaru with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and the Orchestre National de France. In 2020, she was awarded the James Conlon Conductor Prize at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, following earlier recognition through the Bruno Walter Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2017 and 2018.

Delyana Lazarova studied conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) with Professor Johannes Schlaefli. She has participated in numerous masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, Paavo Järvi, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Stringer, Robert Spano and Matthias Pintscher, among others. Alongside her Master’s degree in conducting, she is also an accomplished violinist, holding both a Master’s degree and a Performance Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she studied with Mauricio Fuks and received a scholarship in recognition of outstanding artistic achievement.