The Seattle Symphony, whose last music director stormed out two years ago in a flurry of emails, has found someone to take over next year.

The new music director will be Xian Zhang, 51, music director of the inconspicuous New Jersey Symphony for the past nine seasons. She gets a five-year contract in Seattle, where the potential is greater than New Jersey.

From the PR guff:

“Today we are witnessing history being made with the appointment of Xian Zhang as the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony,” said Seattle Symphony President & CEO Krishna Thiagarajan. “Her passionate musicianship is inspiring, her technique is clear and precise and the resulting performances captivate our audiences in heart and soul. Xian was among the first conductors to return to the stage with our orchestra during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, she has forged strong bonds here in Seattle. In fact, her concerts rank among the highest-attended performances since audiences have returned to Benaroya Hall. As Seattle has grown into an important world city and gateway to the Pacific, Xian’s diverse expertise across Asian, Oceanian, European and American orchestras and music schools — from Beijing to New York, Melbourne to Milan — makes her the perfect choice to lead the orchestra in this new era. I am excited by the possibilities and personally could not be happier to gain such a wonderful colleague for our organization. I want to thank the Seattle Symphony search committee, musicians, staff and audiences, who all played a crucial role in this process, a we welcome Xian and her family to the Pacific Northwest. What seemed like a dream a few months ago has now become a reality. Welcome, Xian Zhang!”

RENTON, Wash. – Now in his second season with the franchise with a new contract in tow, Julian Love believes the Seattle Seahawks’ defense has all of the ingredients in place at all three levels to become one of the NFL’s best this season.

But no word can equally create initial optimism or eventual disappointment quite like potential. As the sixth-year safety noted prior to Thursday’s practice leading up to Sunday’s season opener versus Denver, though he thinks Seattle’s upside is “extremely high” with a fun blend of experienced veterans and talented youngsters, Love cautioned against the carriage racing out ahead of the horse with all of the buzz surrounding new coach Mike Macdonald’s scheme.

The main message in the locker room? The Seahawks can’t think they have already arrived when they still have much to prove between the lines after finishing 25th in scoring a year ago with many of the same players on the roster, including Love himself.

“That’s usually the hardest part of developing a team, which is having that high-end potential, but potential doesn’t mean anything unless you execute and you get it done,” Love remarked. “And we had similar guys in the room last year, and I don’t think we achieved much of what we could’ve. And so that potential, it’s great that we can do it, but it takes weeks in, weeks out of being locked in, just being sound, especially in the secondary, stopping the run all year. And so, I think the sky’s the limit, but we have to work to get there.”

As evidenced by Seattle’s defensive struggles a year ago, talent only goes so far in the NFL, as all 11 players have to function as a cohesive unit executing their assignments and communicating with teammates and their coaches must put them in position to succeed. Ranking near the bottom of the NFL in passing defense and rushing defense, the presence of Love, defensive tackle Leonard Williams, pass rusher Boye Mafe, cornerback Devon Witherspoon, and others ultimately didn’t yield expected results.

With Macdonald now steering the ship as the successor for legendary coach Pete Carroll, however, the excitement and exuberance radiating from the VMAC couldn’t have been more palpable this summer. A renewed emphasis on fundamentals and physicality stood out during training camp practices and players could be heard barking out signals every play, exemplifying the stress on communication in a complex system renowned for pre and post-snap disguises.

On paper, the Seahawks should have all the pieces necessary to make dramatic improvements on defense, starting with a further reinforced defensive line. Along with Williams returning on a new three-year deal alongside fellow veteran Jarran Reed and newcomer Johnathan Hankins, the team invested a first-round pick in athletic defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, who should immediately play extensive snaps at multiple positions. Off the edge, Derick Hall looks ready to pop in his sophomore season rotating behind Dre’Mont Jones, Uchenna Nwosu, and Boye Mafe in a deep group.

If Seattle has a question mark, after losing Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks in free agency, linebacker still jumps out as a possible red flag. And yet, at the same time, Macdonald and the coaching staff have been complementary of newcomers Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker, expecting both to play well when the real bullets start flying this weekend, while rookie Tyrice Knight waits in the wings coming off an impressive first preseason.

As for the secondary, Love will benefit from playing next to two of the league’s most promising cornerbacks in Witherspoon and Riq Woolen, who each enjoyed strong training camps and have the goods to push for All-Pro consideration this season. At the other safety spot, Rayshawn Jenkins provides yet another savvy veteran with positional multiplicity, capable of playing single-high safety or in the box like an extra linebacker, while K’Von Wallace has similar flexibility playing in the slot.

With all of that talent around him and a number of young players in the defensive backfield, Love admitted that he feels a bit more pressure to shoulder the leadership load, but he isn’t letting that responsibility be a burden. He’s going to play within himself and control what he can control, including ensuring that both he and his teammates maximize their preparation opportunities with the goal of winning on Sundays.

“Going into last year, I started that game in week one, and I just have a similar confidence, just kind of play my game, my style being me, just try to be as perfect as I can in practice and just continue to be me,” Love said. “And so, I think that translates no matter what is going on externally with my role on this team. From a leadership perspective, though, I think it’s a little heightened. I got to be more aware of the feeling in my room. DBs, talking to my corners, my nickels, and other safeties. I’m just making sure we’re all in the same accord, and we can go out there and win a game.”

Rolling into the Week 1 opener, Love expects the Seahawks will go through their share of growing pains, as is the case for any defense at the start of a new season. This is especially true for a team learning a new defense, as limited preseason reps and a pair of joint practices doesn’t provide much of an opportunity going against other competition in August, leaving plenty of questions in regard to how the team will perform in real time.

At the end of the day, with being bought into the scheme being only half the battle, Seattle’s path to success or failure with Macdonald on the sidelines will rest on the team’s continued improvement by week. Starting with a home date with Denver this weekend, Love hopes to see the group start building towards playing to its full potential right off the bat with the mission of becoming a finely tuned machine by January heading full steam ahead into the postseason.

“I think it should be an ongoing thing. The best teams and best defenses each year they build on each week. Say they see a look, or something doesn’t go their way one week. They improve on it. They correct it, and they move forward. And so that’s what we have to be. We have to be fluid, and we have to be adaptable on defense, everybody. And I think that’s how we can get to that top potential.”

Xian Zhang was hired Thursday as music director of the Seattle Symphony, becoming the first woman conductor to head a major West Coast orchestra and filling a post that had been vacant since Thomas Dausgaard quit abruptly in January 2022.

Zhang agreed to a five-year contract starting in 2025-26, the orchestra said Thursday. She becomes music director designate this season.

She first conducted the orchestra at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall in June 2008 in Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky” and has returned several times, including for performances of Orff’s “Carmina Burana” in 2023 and Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” this April.

“With each visit, I realized the depth and the understanding of the music from the musicians,” she said. “It felt in a way musically speaking that we’re really on the same page and speaking the same language.”

Zhang has been music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 2016-17 and won a 2023 Grammy Award for a recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the string trio Time for Three of works by Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts.

Seattle Symphony President Krishna Thiagarajan said he was impressed by “the energy and the connection between her and the orchestra that also translated to the audience.”

“She brings a new perspective to anything that she conducts while being truthful to traditional interpretations of what we would call core repertoire,” he said. “She has a great sense of contemporary American composers, especially contemporary American composers that have an ethnic background, of immigrant composers. She’s been a champion for the causes of women in music over her career.”

Following lengthy music director tenures of Gerard Schwarz (1985-2011) and Ludovic Morlot (2011-19), Dausgaard was hired in October 2017 to start a four-year contract in 2019-20. After Dausgaard quit with 1 1/2 seasons remaining in his contract, he told Danish National Radio’s P2 ,“I have felt threatened and I haven’t felt safe with going to work” and told The New York Times “I felt my life is too precious to be in such tension.” Orchestra officials denied any impropriety.

Jon Rosen, the lawyer who has chaired the orchestra’s board since August 2021, said Dausgaard’s messy departure “certainly was at least a subliminal consideration” in the search for a successor.

“We all wanted to have someone who was going to be very congenial, be able to relate to the musicians,” he said. “I certainly wanted to learn from the experience with Thomas.”

Born in China, Zhang started playing piano at 3, went to Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and was invited by a teacher to step in to conduct Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at 19 with the China National Opera Orchestra.

She attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, won the Maazel/Vilar International Conductors’ Competition in 2002 and was hired as the New York Philharmonic’s assistant conductor and later associate. Zhang became music director of the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra from 2005-07 and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi from 2009-16.

Seattle had 176 scheduled concerts and 6,583 subscribers last season when it sold 69.65% of tickets, exceeding its 58.94% in the 2018-19 season before the pandemic. Revenue last season is estimated at $31.6 million, including $11.9 million from tickets.

Zhang is committed to up to 14 weeks annually with Seattle and eight with New Jersey, where she lives. Her 2024-25 season includes performances with the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Zhang returns to the Seattle Symphony for programs in March and June.

She was in Brazil in June to conduct the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra when Alexander Monsey, her agent at IMG Artists, called to say the Seattle Symphony had offered her the job.

“I was kind of surprised,” she said. “I was completely not prepared to hear such good news.”