BIO

First Prize Winner of the International Conducting Lab Competition, Kelly Lam is a conductor of passion and precision, equally at home in operatic and symphonic repertoire.

On the operatic podium, Lam recently conducted Joseph Bologne's L'Amant Anonyme ("The Anonymous Lover") with New Camerata Opera in New York, NY, starring renowned sopranos Alexandria Crichlow and Lynnesha Crump. In 2024, she was Assistant Conductor for Catapult Opera's U.S. Premiere of Nadia Boulanger's La Ville Morte under Neal Goren, and returns to Catapult Opera in March 2027 for Philip Glass's Sound of a Voice and Hotel of Dreams. She previously served as Assistant Conductor for Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, Czech Republic, and has assisted David Angus (Boston Lyric Opera) on numerous productions including Madama Butterfly by Puccini and La Cenerentola by Rossini.

In symphonic repertoire, Lam makes her debut with the Sumter Symphony Orchestra in February 2027 as Guest Conductor. She has appeared in concert with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic and the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra in Colorado, USA. She served as Assistant Conductor for the São Paulo State Youth Orchestra (Orquestra Jovem do Estado de São Paulo) in Brazil under Claudio Cruz on Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and made her debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in July 2022 as Conducting Fellow for JoAnn Falletta.

A Carlos Miguel Prieto Conducting Fellow at the Orchestra of the Americas in 2024, Lam was among only three Fellows to receive their Artist Diploma with Distinction that season. She holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Mannes School of Music, where she received the Valerie Feuer Leadership Award and Deans' Award, and is a distinguished alumna of the Nadia Boulanger Institute of the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, receiving distinction in counterpoint, solfège, harmony and score-reading. She is currently mentored by David Angus, Music Director of Boston Lyric Opera, and Johannes Klumpp, Chief Conductor of the Heidelberger Sinfoniker. Major teachers have included Marcia LaReau, Mark Shapiro, David Hayes, and Alexander Polishchuk, disciple of Ilya Musin. She has participated in masterclasses led by Jorma Panula, Robert Spano and Rüdiger Bohn.

An ardent advocate for historically under-represented groups in classical music, Lam has conducted the National Sawdust Ensemble for the world premieres of music by women and non-binary composers Amelia Brey, Corey Chang, Horacio Fernández Vázquez, Christopher Jessup and Su Jin Kang for the Blueprint Fellowship created by composer Paola Prestini. Further world premieres include Echoes from the Darkness, a chamber opera by Emmy-nominated composer John Califra; and Adolphus Hailstork’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d on Governor’s Island with award-winning chamber choir Cantori NY, among others.

A winner of the Elinor Nahm Prize for Excellence in Italian, Lam has fine working knowledge of French, German and Spanish. Originally from Hong Kong and raised in the United Kingdom, she is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. She holds degrees from Harvard and Cambridge in History of Art and Architecture, where she worked with renowned scholars Deborah Howard and Frank Fehrenbach.