Dan Zhu is widely recognized as one of the finest Chinese musicians on the international stage today, praised as “an artist of affecting humility and beautiful tone production” by The Strad magazine, performing internationally in North America, Europe, and Asia. His recent triumphant performance with the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood Festival has been raved by the critics as “truly brilliant, compelling, and polished”. He has appeared with many orchestras under the direction of Maestros Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Philippe Entremont, Jacek Kaspszyk, Krzysztof Penderecki, Carl St.Clair, Muhai Tang, Long Yu, Jia Lv among many others, and has been invited to perform and give master classes at renown festivals, such as Salzburg Festspiele, Tanglewood, Verbier, Kuhmo, Marlboro, Menton, Schleiswig-Holstein, Prades-Casals, Ravinia, and Spoleto.
Dan Zhu’s recent seasons highlights includes concerto appearances with Zubin Mehta and the Orchestra Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Camerata Salzburg at the Salzburg Festspiele; the National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center; with Prague Symphony for the 70th anniversary of UNESCO in Paris; the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra in Germany; Lincoln Center series in New York; “World New Year’s Gala” at NCPA in Beijing, and special performance for the state visit of China and the US in Washington, D.C. by the international media coverage; China premiere of Bright Sheng’s violin concerto “Let Fly” at the opening concert of the Beijing International Modern Music Festival; Symphony Orchestras of Boston, Belgrade, Munich, Paris, Vancouver, etc. Duo recitals with Christoph Eschenbach of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas cycle at the Kennedy Center and at National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing. He has collaborated in recital and chamber music with pianists Michel Dalberto, Philippe Entremont, Peter Frankl, Richard Goode, Lang Lang, KunWoo Paik, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, other instrumentalists includes Nobuko Imai, Gary Hoffman, and Mischa Maisky. Artist in residencies at the Mehli Mehta Foundation in Mumbai and at the “Intimacy of Creativity” in Hong Kong. His duo recitals with pianist Tzimon Barto in Hamburg was highly acclaimed by Die Welt as “distinctive dramaturgy of contrasts, crystalline tones with intensity and sensitivity”, last season with pianist Oliver Triendl was praised as “Perfect Playing” by Münchner Merkur.
A native of Beijing, Zhu made his first public appearance at the age of nine, performing Mendelssohn’s violin concerto with the China Youth Chamber Orchestra. At age twelve he entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he studied with Xiao-zhi Huang. Four years later he was awarded the Alexis Gregory Scholarship to study with Lucie Robert at Mannes College of Music in New York. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with Tchaikovsky violin concerto at the age of eighteen. His mentors have included Ivry Gitlis, Gerard Poulet, and Aaron Rosand. As recording artist, Dan Zhu has appeared on several international labels, such as Cascavelle, CPO, Naxos, ORF. His latest world premiere recordings of Boris Papandopulo’s violin concerto and Bright Sheng’s chamber music album, both will be released in 2017.
Dan Zhu has collaborated with numbers of the leading composers of our time on concert stages and in recordings, including George Benjamin, Gyorgy Kurtag, Krzysztof Penderecki, the late Gian-Carlo Menotti, Wolfgang Rihm, Bright Sheng, and Xiaogang Ye. His passionate involvement with Antarctica Forum in the environmental protection field, led him to be the first violinist in the history performed on the continent of Antarctica in 2013. Follow Dan Zhu’s music world on: www.danzhumusic.com