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In 2022, she began her position as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In the 2023–2024 season she will conduct the new production of Peter Grimes at Teatro alla Scala, staged by Robert Carsen. Other opera engagements take her again to the Vienna State Opera with Die Fledermaus and La fanciulla del West, and to the Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin with Khovanshchina. In the symphonic field she conducts the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Young’s previous titled positions include: principal guest conductor of the Orchestre Chambre de Lausanne (2017–2020), principal conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic (1998–2002); artistic director of Opera Australia (2001–2003); principal guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon; artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera, and chief music director of the Hamburg Philharmonic (2005–2015).

During her tenure in Hamburg, Young dedicated herself nearly exclusively to that house, conducting numerous premieres and a diverse repertoire with performance of such wide-ranging composers as Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Strauss, Hindemith, Britten, and Henze. This period was further distinguished by many world and German premieres, as Young brought contemporary music to the fore during her time in Hamburg.

Young is well known as a Wagner and Strauss specialist, a reputation she developed early in her career when she conducted multiple complete cycles of Wagner’s Ring at the Vienna State Opera and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, as well as his Walküre and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg along with Strauss’ Elektra, Salome, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, and Ariadne auf Naxos, and also with a new production of Hans Pfitzner’s Palestrina at the Bavarian State Opera. Beyond her numerous performances of Wagner’s and Strauss’ operas on Vienna’s famed Ringstrasse, Young’s long relationship with the Vienna State Opera, which began with her debut in 1993, includes the widely acclaimed rediscovery of Fromental Halevy’s La Juive in 1999, along with many of the most famous works of the Italian operatic repertoire. After her responsibilities in Hamburg kept her away for several years, she returned to the Vienna State Opera in the 2011–2012 season with a celebrated revival of Strauss’ Daphne, and she remains a regular feature of that house’s programming to this day. Outside of Vienna, Young has appeared as a guest conductor at such world-class opera houses as Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and she is a regular guest at the major opera houses in Munich, Berlin, Dresden, and Zurich.

Alongside her extensive operatic performances, Young has also made a name for herself as a symphonic conductor. She has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including among many others, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin, London, New York, Vienna, Munich, Paris, Los Angeles, Dallas, and San Francisco. Following completion of her tenure in Hamburg, Young is appearing once again as a regular guest conductor with orchestras around the world, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, in addition to several North American orchestras, and with various orchestras in her native Australia.

Young’s work is also preserved on numerous recordings. In addition to complete recordings of Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler and Wagner’s Ring with the Hamburg State Opera, the Oehms Classics label has released Young’s recordings with the Hamburg Philharmonic of the complete Bruckner symphonies in their original versions, as well as the complete symphonies of Brahms, Mahler’s Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, and Franz Schmidt’s The Book with the Seven Seals. Her performance of the rediscovery of Halevy’s La Juive at the Vienna State Opera has also been released on CD, while DVDs have been released of her Bavarian State Opera performances of Pfitzner’s Palenstrina and Janáček´s Aus einem Totenhaus, and her Hamburg performances of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and of Aribert Reimann’s Lear a.o.

Along with her honorary doctorates from the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne, Young counts the Brahms Prize of Schleswig-Holstein and the Goethe Medal among her numerous awards and accolades. In addition, she is a “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” in France, a Member of the Order of Australia, and a professor at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Hamburg. In April 2022, she was awarded honorary membership of the Vienna State Opera.

In 2023–2024 she joins Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård on tour in Scotland, then for the orchestra’s three-night residency at Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus. Other season’s highlights include major performances with Orchestre National de France and Stephane Denève on tour, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Washington, D.C.’s National Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young, Milan I Pomeriggi Musicali and James Feddeck, as well as Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Macao Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven Orchester Bonn.

She has played with many leading orchestras across the globe: from the U.S. (Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra), to the UK (Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, London Symphony, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras), across Europe in Germany (Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Münchner Philharmoniker, Dresden Staatskapelle, WDR Sinfoniorchester Köln, hr-Sinfonieorchester), through her native France (Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France and Lyon), also performing in Italy (Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Della RAI), further afield with Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and in Asia (NHK Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony) among many others, and collaborated with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Fabio Luisi, James Conlon, Gianandrea Noseda, Krzysztof Urbanski, Antonio Pappano, Rafael Payare, Karina Kanellakis, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Lionel Bringuier, Fabien Gabel, Marek Janowski, Robin Ticciati, Osmö Vanska, James Gaffigan, Semyon Bychkov, and Dennis Russell Davies.

She performs in the world’s most esteemed concert halls—Vienna Musikverein, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Herkulessaal in Munich, Berlin Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, Lucerne KKL, Bozar in Brussels, Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Hollywood Bowl, and festivals—Klavier Festival Ruhr and Bad Kissingen, Verbier, La Roque d’Anthéron, Bucharest Enescu Festival, San Francisco Performances, Chicago Symphony recital series, and Aspen and Ravinia Festivals. In 2014, she became the first artist-in-residence of the Zürich Opera and performed in New York in the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center with Wiener Symphoniker. 

She also takes pleasure in educational outreach and conducts master classes in many of the cities in which she performs.

Among her critically acclaimed Naïve CDs features an all-Chopin disc with a live recording of the Piano Concerto No. 2 with Fabio Luisi conducting Staatskapelle Dresden. In May 2011, Naïve issued her sixth recording, released in celebration of Liszt’s Bicentennial. The album received Diapason Magazine​’s Diapason d’Or and Gramophone​’s Editor’s Choice, which stated “…the wonderfully gifted 23-year-old Lise de la Salle gives us a Liszt recital of astonishing strength, poetry, and, for one so young, musical maturity.” Two recordings were released in 2018: the first Bach Unlimited is a Bach-focused album recorded with Naïve including the Italian Concerto, Liszt’s Fantasy & Fugue on the Theme B.A.C.H. and the Bach/​Busoni Chaconne, and the second album Paris-Moscow is recorded with French cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca, the album offers a celebration of the musical relationship between Paris and Moscow (Sony Classical). In 2020, she recorded Chausson Concert with Daniel Hope and Zürcher Kammerorchester (Deutsche Grammophon). Her latest album (2021), When do we Dance?, presents an odyssey of dances through a whole century. 

Lise de la Salle started the piano at age four and gave her first concert five years later in a live broadcast on Radio France. She studied at Paris Conservatoire and made her concerto debut at 13 with Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in Avignon, her Paris recital debut at the Louvre before going on tour with Orchestre National d'Île de France, playing Haydn’s Concerto in D Major. She has worked closely with Pascal Nemirovski and was long-term advisee of Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux.

In 2004, de la Salle won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. Later that year, the organization presented both her New York and Washington, D.C. debuts. At the Ettlingen International Competition in Germany, de la Salle won first prize and the Bärenreiter Award. She has also won first prize in many French piano competitions.

Since launching its eponymous recording label in 2020, the NSO has embarked on ambitious recording projects including the Orchestra’s first complete Beethoven Symphony cycle and the release of the first-ever cycle of George Walker’s Sinfonias, both led by Noseda. Recent projects include a new series of Four Symphonic Works by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence Carlos Simon conducted by Noseda, and William Shatner’s So Fragile, So Blue, recorded live with the NSO in the Concert Hall.

The NSO’s community engagement and education projects are nationally recognized, including NSO In Your Neighborhood; Notes of Honor; and Sound Health. Career development opportunities for young musicians include the NSO Youth Fellowship Program and its acclaimed, tuition-free Summer Music Institute.