As part of our Ones to Watch series of concerts we’re putting the spotlight on seven of the brightest emerging conducting talents in the world in a series of interviews. We’ll be finding out what makes our up-and-coming conductors tick, what they think makes a great conductor great, what a baton is for and what can go wrong when you're on the podium!

This month we caught up with the Ossetian maestro Tugan Sokhiev in anticipation of his Ones to Watch concert with the LSO on 30 April 2015. He will be joined by soloist Baiba Skride* in a programme featuring works by Messiaen, Bartók and Tchaikovsky.

As part of our Ones to Watch series of artist interviews Sarah Breeden caught up with conductor David Afkham ahead of his concert with the LSO at Barbican on Sunday 1 February 2015. His programme will include Webern's Passacaglia, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3 with Nicholas Angelich and Brahms' Symphony No 2.

I’ve never experienced a residency like this before, and I can’t imagine myself lucky enough to find another – it is truly in a land of its own.

In short, I’m creating music with the LSO and the National Trust in response to the breathtaking home of the late Khadambi Asalache at 575 Wandsworth Road – a polymath who wrote poetry, worked in the Treasury, was the son of a Kenyan chieftan, and, over thirty years, filled every wall of his house on Wandsworth road with self-made intricate wooden fretwork.

As part of our Ones to Watch series of artist interviews we caught up with conductor Xian Zhang ahead of her concert with the LSO at the Barbican on Sunday 18 January 2015.