Since winning the Antonio Pedrotti Competition in Trento, Italy in 1990, Lu Jia has established himself as one of the most outstanding conductors to have emerged from Asia in recent years. Now residing in Italy he has been a regular guest conductor with the leading Italian Orchestras and opera companies including Orchestra di Santa Cecilia Rome, Orchestra del RAI Turin, and the Bologna and Rome Opera Houses.

During recent years Lu Jia's career has been developing throughout Europe and he has worked with a number of distinguished orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Saarbrucken Radio, Oslo Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bamberg Symphony and Orchestre National de Lyon.  In 1995 he made his US debut conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival and in 1996 he made his debut in Australia with both the Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.

Opera also plays an important part in Lu Jia's career and in 1991 he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Trieste Opera, a position he relinquished in 1995. Lu Jia has conducted La Clemenza di Tito at the Lausanne Opera, Gounod's Faust and Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and The Barber of Seville at the Maggio Musicale in Florence.

Between 1995 and 1999 Lu Jia held the position of Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Regionale di Toscana in Florence. In 2000, Lu Jia was also appointed Principal Conductor of the Lazio Chamber Orchestra in Rome. Following his success with the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, he was unanimously chosen by the orchestra's players as their Chief Conductor and Artistic Adviser and held this position from 1999 until 2005. He has made a series of recordings with the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra for BIS Records – these include the Brahms/orch. Schoenberg Piano Quartet in G Minor and the complete orchestral music of Lindholm - the leading contemporary Swedish composer.

In 2003, Lu Jia made his highly successful debuts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony orchestras. Recent and future engagements include concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber, Hallé Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Saarbrucken Radio Symphony, RAI Orchestra Turin, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Verona Opera, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Turin Opera.