Sally (Mingyan) Yu is a rising young conductor and pianist from a versatile background. Born and raised in Yunnan, China, Sally initiated her journey to the U.S in 2009 as a high school sophomore in La Jolla, CA. Sally once embarked on a promising career path as a high-speed integrated circuit designer in the 5G telecommunication industry. Past highlights of this career include graduating from Cornell University and Columbia University in 2016 and 2017 respectively with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, interning at Qualcomm Inc., and working at Anokiwave Inc. Her past research mentors include Alyssa Apsel from Cornell Apsel Lab and Harish Krishnaswamy from Columbia CoSMIC Lab. Maintaining her passion for classical music at the same time, Sally completed a music minor in piano performance from Cornell University and continued lessons in piano, theory, and music history with various faculty members from Columbia University, The Juilliard School, Boston Conservatory, and New England Conservatory. After studying conducting with Maestro Charles Peltz of the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble and Maestro Mark Shapiro of the New York Cecilia Chorus, in 2019, Sally decided to switch her career path in pursuit of her dream to become a conductor.

Sally completed her second Master’s degree in instrumental conducting at New England Conservatory (NEC) in 2021 with Meastro Charles Peltz. She was a proud protégé of Lyle Davidson who inherited Nadia Boulanger's Vidal harmony training from the Paris Conservatory. Sally subsequently attended conducting workshops and festivals with Maestros Larry Rachleff, Donald Schleicher, Mark Gibson, Mark Shapiro, Gregory Pritchard and Philip Greenberg. Sally completed a Certificate of Merit in piano performance from NEC in May 2022. Her past piano teachers include Andrew Zhou, David Friend, Xak Bjerken, Reiko Uchida, Michael Shinn, Elizabeth Skavish, and Konstantinos Papadakis. In fall 2022, Sally will start her doctoral studies in orchestral conducting with Maestro Octavio Más-Arocas and Maestra Katherine Kilburn at Michigan State University. In summer 2022, Sally will appear as conducting apprentice in multiple music festivals including the Prague Summer Nights in Alexandria, DC, the Miami Music Festival, and the LA Conducting Workshop & Competition. She was also accepted as an assistant conductor for the Berlin Opera Academy.  A multi-lingual global citizen with many other hobbies including photography and scuba diving, Sally believes that she can put her hybrid background into substantial use in the future.