But off stage, she is a typical urban belle, enjoying everything in life, from rock music to good food.

At her home, a spacious rental apartment in the west end of Shanghai decorated with tapestry, a camphor tea table and big picture posters, Zhang, a slender and delicate little woman in coiled hair and casual clothes, sits in a simple folding chair watching a DVD, not giving the least clue of her serious job.

But it is this little woman that has rehearsed and performed more than 20 Western classical operas at home and abroad. Her good command of several foreign languages, from English to Italian and French, makes it easy for her to communicate with musicians of foreign orchestras, such as Toulouse Symphony Orchestra of France, Florence Opera of Italy, Israel Symphony Orchestra and Latvian State Opera.

Her parents were fairly open-minded, and let their only daughter pursue the studies of her interest. And Zhang showed interest in lots of things: swimming, drawing, playing basketball, and of course, music.

Xylophone

As time went by, she realized that her first love was music. Influenced by her music-loving father, Zhang received a solid musical education from primary school, learning to play piano and xylophone at seven years old.

Then at 17, due to her strong basics in music and comprehensive ability, Zhang was admitted in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and started to study conducting under the guidance of professors Huang Xiaotong, Zhang Guoyong and Zhang Mei.

As a musically gifted student, Zhang completed her studies in only three years' time. Her first formal conducting performance was given with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at her graduation ceremony.

The bold 20-year-old didn't feel nervous until minutes before she had to face the orchestra.

"I was worried about how to communicate with all the strange players in the orchestra," she recalled. "It was very important for the conductor and the orchestra to communicate smoothly."

But as soon as she stepped on the stage, she lost all feelings of uneasiness because she was totally immersed in her musical world.

Debut in Europe

But the work experience in Shanghai Opera was far from satisfactory for Zhang.

"I think what I am pursuing is not there. So I gave up the job and went to Italy," Zhang said. "And that was the turning point of my life."

It was in Italy that she learned much that couldn't be taught at school. It was there that she met world-renowned conductor Zubin Mehta by chance at Florence Opera and then became an assistant conductress to him.

"The maestro is just an ordinary man except for the music, enjoying food and cherishing friendship," Zhang recalled. Mehta loved spicy food so much that he used to carry red peppers with him.

"In Tel Aviv, I went to the movies with him, watching 'The Mask of Zoro'. Mehta loved Catherine Zeta-Jones. He thought she was amazingly beautiful," Zhang recalled.

Compared with the symphony, which is more abstract and profound, opera is more understandable but demands more skills from the orchestra and the conductor. Of all the classical opera works, Zhang's best love is "La Boheme" by Puccini.

"There is not a single note that is disposable, and the characters' emotions are depicted with great drama."

Though she herself does not like tragedies, when performing these classical works, such as "Turandot", "Othello" and "La Boheme", Zhang is often moved.

Later on, from 2001 till 2002, Zhang served as conductress in the Toulouse Symphony Orchestra in France under special invitation from maestro Michel Plasson.

Enjoying Life

"As we all know, Europe is the cradle of classical music. Its musical history is at the same time the development of its civilization. The experience in Europe had a very strong influence on me not only in music and conducting but also in my attitude toward life," Zhang said.

"Enjoy every minute of life" is her motto: work is just a part of life, not the whole.

"Life is prior to work," she said. "Every day I squeezed out time from enjoying life to complete work."

Every little thing in life is beautiful and enjoyable: she likes travelling, drinking beer on the beach, chatting with friends with a cup of coffee or listening to her favourite music like blues or jazz, and playing with her pet dog, a 7-year-old pitch-black dog.

Zhang does every thing as she pleases. She never does something simply because she has to do it. She chooses to conduct because up till now she is more interested in it than any other thing and it fits her. She has once worked in marketing, but as soon as she found herself not suited to it, she came back to conducting.

"I am so lucky that I can take my interest as my job and earn a living doing it," she said. She loves to hear vocal rehearsals. "I would be so excited and feel it better than having a great French dinner."

Zhang is not very ambitious. She said she would change her job if one day she found something attracting her more than conducting.

(Shanghai Star August 08, 2002)