Exclusive Interview: Conductor Dane Lam on New Album, Globe-trotting, and Why ‘Classical Music Is Better’
Jon Sobel | March 20, 2026
We’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to interview a number of prominent conductors over the years, but never one quite like Dane Lam. Though only in his early 40s, the Australian-Chinese-Singaporean maestro is forging one of the world’s most wide-ranging careers among international music directors.
He is the only conductor in the world to simultaneously hold leadership positions at major institutions in the U.S., Australia, and Asia, serving as Music and Artistic Director of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra; Artistic Director of State Opera South Australia; and Principal Conductor of the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra.
The imminent release of Lam’s Signum Classics recording, The Backyard of the Village, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and music by the eminent Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye, seemed a good opportunity to find out what the globe-trotting conductor has been up to – including some bold statements he makes about classical music itself.
Read more here.