Conductor Apo Hsu has been a mentor to younger conductors in both her native Taiwan and the U.S. She has served as music director of the National Taiwan Normal University Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as a guest with many other orchestras in the U.S., Taiwan, and other countries.

Apo Hsu, also known by her birth name of Apo Ching-hsien Hsu (or its Chinese form, Hsu Ching-hsien), was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1956. She attended the National Taiwan Normal University, graduating with a B.A. degree in piano. Hsu moved to the U.S. and enrolled at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, studying double bass with Gary Karr and earning a master's degree in double bass performance, but she also began taking conducting classes at Hartt and received a diploma in the field after studying with Charles Bruck. Hsu went on to take conducting classes at the Pierre Monteux Domaine School in Maine and the Conductor's Institute of South Carolina, studying with Harold Farberman and at the Aspen Music Festival with Murry Sidlin.

Hsu began her conducting career in Oregon, serving as conductor and artistic director of the Oregon Mozart Players in Eugene from 1991 to 1997. She also conducted the Oregon Symphony during this period. In 1997, she became the artistic director and conductor of the Women's Philharmonic in San Francisco; she remained there until 2003 and was the orchestra's last permanent conductor before it disbanded; she toured Brazil with that group. In 2001, she became one of the first conductors to record music by African-American composer Florence B. Price, releasing an album of Price's orchestral works with the Women's Philharmonic on the Koch International label. From 1995 to 2003, Hsu was also the conductor of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Missouri.

Hsu remained active in Taiwan and elsewhere in East Asia. In 2003, she became the music director at National Taiwan Normal University, and she appeared with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, as well as and the Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, and the Sung Nam and Prime Philharmonic Orchestras in Seoul, South Korea. She has also appeared in the People's Republic of China, conducting the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra in the 2017-2018 season. In the U.S., her guest appearances include those with the Detroit, St. Louis, and Harrisburg Symphony Orchestras. Her programming shows familiarity with both Asian and Western works. Hsu is the head of the conducting studio at National Taiwan Normal University, where she has trained many younger conductors, and in the U.S., she often teaches at the Conductors' Institute at Bard College in upstate New York. She has served on the faculty for the conducting workshops of the American Symphony Orchestra League. ~ James Manheim, Rovi