“Images”,
the debut solo recording of Natalie Zhu featuring Mussorgsky’s
“Pictures at an Exhibition”, Debussy’s “Images”
Book I&II, and Chia-Yu Hsu “Among Gardens”. Exquisitely
performed, magically recorded. Enjoy your copy today.
The recipient of a 2006 Musical Fund Society Career Advancement
Award, the 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2003 Andrew
Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, pianist Natalie Zhu is a winner
of Astral
Artistic Services’ 1998 National Auditions. The
Philadelphia Inquirer heralded Astral’s presentation
of Ms. Zhu in recital as a display of "emotional and pianistic
pyrotechnics"; selections from the recital were later broadcast
on National Public Radio’s "Performance Today."
Ms. Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia
as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In the U.S. she
has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Pacific
Symphony, the Haddonfield Symphony,the Concerto Soloists Chamber
Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Astral Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen
Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Riverside Symphony Orchestra,
and the Colorado Philharmonic National Repertory Orchestra. Ms.
Zhu made her European debut in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et
d’Orleans in France, she has also given solo recitals at
the Philadelphia
Chamber Music Society, New York’s Steinway Hall and
Merkin Hall, Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Series in Fresno,
Portland Piano Festival in Oregon, Munich’s Herkulessaal
in Germany, and Beijing Concert Hall in China. She has performed
with both the Vermeer and Miami quartets, and collaborated with
members of the Guarneri, Orion, Mendelssohn,Ying Quartets, and
the Beaux Arts Trio. Ms. Zhu has been touring with renowned violinist
Hilary Hahn
since 1997, stepping in for pianist Garrick Ohlsson in several
performances of Ms. Hahn’s October 2000 U.S. tour; Ms. Zhu
and Ms. Hahn have maintained a partnership until 2006 with tours
around the world, including a hugely successful Carnegie Hall
recital debut. The duo toured throughout the U.S., Europe, and
Asia in the 2004-2005 season, appearing in Hanoi, Bangkok, Shanghai,
Taipei, Tokyo, Lyon, Lucern, Hamburg, Geneva, London, and a benefit
concert for the Red Cross in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Ms. Zhu and
Ms. Hahn released a CD for the Deutsche Grammophon label in September
2005.
Ms. Zhu has been the recipient of numerous awards including the
grand prize in the both the 1988 and 1989 Young Keyboard Artists
Association Competition. She was the first-prize winner in the
Johanna Hodges Piano Concerto Competition in 1988 and 1991, and
also received its 1991 Concert Series Award. An active chamber
musician, she has appeared in Marlboro, Amelia Island, Kingston,
Great Lake, Tanglewood, Skaneateles, and the Bay
Chamber Music Festivals.
Natalie Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at the
age of six in her native China and made her first public appearance
at age nine in Beijing. At eleven she emigrated with her family
to Los Angeles, and by fifteen was enrolled at the Curtis
Institute of Music where she received the Rachmaninoff Award
and studied with Gary Graffman She received a Master of Music
degree from the Yale
School of Music where she studied with Claude Frank.
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