Jahja Ling () is a conductor, music director and pianist. From 2004 to 2017, he was the music director and conductor at the San Diego Symphony. Following his retirement in 2017, he plans to do guest conducting, as well as teaching and volunteering. He is of Hokkien Chinese descent, formerly an Indonesian citizen and is now an American citizen. He was the first conductor of Chinese descent to serve as music director of a major U.S. orchestra. Early life He was born 25 October 1951 in Jakarta, Indonesia and began to play the piano at age 4. He studied at the Yayasan Pendidikan Musik (Indonesian: Foundation for Musical Education) in Jakarta. At age 17 he received a Rockefeller award scholarship and went to study at The Juilliard School in New York City. At Juilliard he earned a master's degree, studied piano with Mieczyslaw Munz and conducting with John Nelson. Ling then went to study orchestral conducting at the Yale School of Music under Otto-Werner Mueller and received a doctor of musical arts degree. He was also a conducting fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. Career Ling served as founding Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (1986-1993) and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (1981–84), where Ling served as SFSYO's first Music Director from 1981-1984. He and the SFSYO were selected to perform for Queen Elizabeth II while on a State visit to San Francisco in 1983. Ling was on the conducting roster of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984–2005, serving as Resident Conductor from 1985-2002. Ling debuted with The Cleveland Orchestra in 1985, and has conducted the orchestra in 32 consecutive seasons. He was also a member of the conducting staff of The Cleveland Orchestra for 20 years, from 1984 to 2005. From 1985 to 2002, he served as Resident Conductor, leading the orchestra in over 400 concerts and over 600 works at Severance Hall, the annual Blossom Festival, and while on tour. During his tenure as Resident Conductor, Ling led the Orchestra's annual concert in downtown Cleveland, heard by more than a million people since first presented in 1990. For 6 seasons, from 2000-2005, Ling served as Music Director of the Blossom Festival and is the last person to have served with that title. From 1988-2002, Ling was Music Director of the Florida Orchestra and brought that orchestra from a community orchestra into one of the finest