Kevin Zhu

1st prize winner of the Junior Division of the Menuhin International Violin Competition 2012 in Beijing

Thirteen-year-old Kevin Zhu has amassed an outstanding record of concert performances and competition wins since he began studying violin at age three. He has performed as a soloist at prestigious venues such as London's Royal Festival Hall, China's National Centre for the Performing Arts, and Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin. His solo debut with The Philharmonia Orchestra, one of the world's greatest orchestras, received a glowing review from venerable music magazine The Strad. On Kevin's performance of Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy, critic Tim Homfray writes: "Zhu is just brilliant. He gave a performance of awesome technical command and maturity, in which every devilish demand put his way by Sarasate was dispatched with ease and a proper degree of dramatic flair."

In 2012 Menuhin International Violin Competition in Beijing, Kevin won first prize in the Junior Division, becoming the youngest-ever winner in the 29-year history of the competition. He also took home the Composers Prize for the best performance of a new Chinese work.

Kevin’s radio appearances include the well-known NPR program From the Top in 2012, BBC Radio 3′s In Tune in 2013, and Classical 89.5 KMFA in 2014. As a Culture Ambassador of the Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation of China, Kevin was a featured soloist at Harpa International Music Academy in Iceland in 2013. He was also invited to perform Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Symphony Parnassus at Nourse Theatre in San Francisco last November, and Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 with Saratoga Symphony early this year. Kevin's future engagements include two solo recitals at Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota in Florida.

Kevin is currently a scholarship student in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music preparatory division under world-renowned violin pedagogue Li Lin. He also participated in the Perlman Summer Music Program headed by Itzhak Perlman in 2013.

 

03/2014