Zhang Guoyong began his study in conducting in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music under the direction of the famous conductor Prof. Huang Xiaotong. In 1993, he was transferred by the government to study in the Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky, where he studied under the world famous conductor G. Rozhdestvensky. He is now the president and artistic director of the Shanghai Opera House, Dean of Conducting Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the vice chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association

He has cooperated with many orchestras and well-known musicians both at home and abroad. Apart from the symphonic repertoires, he also conducted numerous operas, such as Rigoletto, Don Pasquale, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme; La Traviata, Otello, the Wager; ballets like Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote. Nutcrackers; Cantatas like Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Mozart’s Requiem, Song of the Forest, Stabat Mater, Carmina Burana, and so on.

In 2006, he was invited to be a member of jury of the 8th Cadaques Orchestra International Conducting Competition in Spain.