Dan Zhu is widely recognised as one of the leading musicians of his generation on the international stage today, praised by The Strad magazine as “an artist of affecting humility and beautiful tone production”, 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 world class orchestras under the baton of conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Philippe Entremont, Jacek Kaspszyk, Uroš Lajovic, Krzysztof Penderecki, Carl St. Clair, Muhai Tang, Ralf Weikert, Long Yu among many others, and he has been invited to perform and give master-classes at renowned festivals, including, Salzburg Festspiele, Tanglewood, Verbier, Kuhmo, Marlboro, Menton, Schleiswig-Holstein, Prades-Casals, Ravinia, and Spoleto.
Recent highlights include the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Alban Berg Violin Concerto with the Slovenian Philharmonic, concerto appearances with the Orchestra Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Zubin Mehta, with Camerata Salzburg at the Salzburg Festspiele, as well as with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Belgrade, Hong Kong, New York, Munich, Paris, Vancouver among others, duo recitals with Christoph Eschenbach at the Kennedy Center and at National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing and the complete cycle of Beethoven violin & piano sonatas in Beijing, Hong Kong and at the Carnegie Hall.
As an active chamber musician, Dan Zhu has collaborated with pianists Philippe Entremont, Peter Frankl, Richard Goode, Lang Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, as well as a number of renowned instrumentalists such as Joshua Bell, Nobuko Imai, Gary Hoffman, Mischa Maisky, Paul Meyer. Last season, his duo recitals with pianist Tzimon Barto in Hamburg were highly acclaimed by Die Welt as “distinctive dramaturgy of contrasts, crystalline tones with intensity and sensitivity”, while his recitals with pianist Oliver Triendl were praised by Münchner Merkur as “Perfect Playing”. This season, he returns to the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation at NCPA of Mumbai, in piano trio with pianist KunWoo Paik and cellist Henri Dermaquette.
A native of Beijing, Dan Zhu made his first public appearance at the age of nine, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the China Youth Chamber Orchestra. At age of 12, 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 the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at the age of 18. His mentors have included Ivry Gitlis, Gerard Poulet, and Aaron Rosand. As a recording artist, Dan Zhu has released albums by several international labels, including Cascavelle, CPO, Naxos, ORF.
Dan Zhu has collaborated with numerous leading composers of our time on concert stages and in recordings, including George Benjamin, György Kurtág, Krzysztof Penderecki, the late Gian-Carlo Menotti, Wolfgang Rihm, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng. His passionate involvement with the Antarctica Forum in the environmental protection field, led him to be the first violinist in history, who has performed on the continent of Antarctica.
