Francesco Lecce-Chong

American conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong has established himself as a respected leader in the orchestral world through his acclaimed performances, innovative projects, and passionate advocacy for the arts. He was appointed Music Director of two U.S. orchestras, the Eugene Symphony and the Santa Rosa Symphony, before he turned 30. With those groups, he successfully launched several groundbreaking projects, commissioning over a dozen major orchestral works, and building innovative community partnerships. Now, in his seventh season leading the Santa Rosa Symphony, he has grown the orchestra’s reputation as one of the most exciting and important regional orchestras in the U.S. with performances at one of the renowned concert halls in the world, the Green Music Center. In the 2024-25 season, Lecce-Chong takes on the role of Artistic Partner with the Eugene Symphony, a newly created position which allows him to further develop his artistic vision with the orchestra.

Lecce-Chong regularly appears with major orchestras around the country from the San Francisco Symphony to the New York Philharmonic, collaborating with top soloists such as Renée Fleming and Itzhak Perlman. His subscription debut with the San Francisco Symphony was described by The San Francisco Chronicle as “first rate” and pointed out the “vitality and brilliance of the music-making he drew from members of the San Francisco Symphony.” Other recent subscription debuts include the Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Utah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2023, Lecce-Chong debuted in Europe at the prestigious George Enescu Festival with the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, which led to an immediate re-invitation and established a regular relationship with the orchestra.

Through his leadership, Lecce-Chong has fostered an unparalleled dedication to the future of the orchestral art form through commissions, community initiatives, and arts education. One of his first large-scale endeavors was the “First Symphony Project, ” which consisted of major commissions from the next generation of renowned composers across four seasons, complete with multiple residencies in the communities. In less than a decade, he has brought over a dozen major new orchestral works into the repertoire from composers like Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, GRAMMY winner Michael Daugherty, Conrad Tao, Clarice Assad, and Gabriella Smith. During the pandemic, the Santa Rosa Symphony reached over two million households in the Bay Area through its “Santa Rosa Symphony Presents” TV broadcasts through local PBS. The programming included over 20 works by living composers and a partnership with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, culminating in a recording of her music conducted by Lecce-Chong released in 2022 on the Delos label, the first CD release in the orchestra’s history.

Lecce-Chong is equally committed to the opera repertoire, having first conducted performances of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos at age 24 in New York City. He continued to build his opera credentials as staff conductor with the Santa Fe Opera and leading performances with the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee. More recently, he led the Eugene Symphony through the most ambitious project in its history: a semi-staged presentation of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. In Santa Rosa, Lecce-Chong conducted and directed Mozart’s The Magic Flute, complete with his own original dialogue, in addition to partnering with a local arts high school to create a multi-disciplinary experience of the opera.