Jahja Ling (Chinese ???) is an orchestra conductor. Jahja Ling was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, of Chinese descent and is now an American citizen. Jahja Ling began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Jakarta School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to attend The Juilliard School. There he completed a master's degree and studied piano with Mieczyslaw Munz and conducting with John Nelson. He then studied orchestral conducting at the Yale School of Music under Otto-Werner Mueller and received a doctor of musical arts degree.Jahja Ling founded the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in 1981, and served as its first Music Director from 1981-1984. Jahja Ling was on the conducting roster of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984-2005, serving as Resident Conductor from 1985-2002. During that time, he also founded the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and was its first music director from 1986-1993. From 2000-2005, Ling was Music Director of the Blossom Music Festival.
From 1988-2002, Jahja Ling was Music Director of the Florida Orchestra, and is now its Music Director Laureate. Since 2004, he has been the Music Director of the San Diego Symphony, with an initial contract for 5 years.
Jahja Ling has been married twice. Jahja Ling and his late first wife, Jane, had two sons, Gabriel and Daniel. His second wife, since 2001, is the pianist Jesse Chang, and they have two children.
