Harmony Zhu
Piano
Described by David Dubal as “part of the next great Golden Age of the piano,” Harmony Zhu performs regularly at prestigious festivals and venues worldwide, having appeared with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and David Alan Miller.
Harmony has performed at many festivals worldwide including the Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Oxford Piano Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. She has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, CBC, CBS, and From the Top, captivating and inspiring people everywhere she goes with her extraordinary musical maturity, charming charisma, and upbeat personality.
Under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Harmony helped open the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 118th season at its Opening Night Gala Concert, three months before touring with the Israel Philharmonic and appearing with the Detroit Symphony for three concerts. In the same year, Harmony performed as the only student pianist at the Juilliard Pre-College Centennial Gala Concert as well as the farewell gala for former Juilliard president, Joseph Polisi. After appearing as a soloist at the Ravinia Music Festival in the summer of 2018 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, she was invited back to Ravinia again in 2019 to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop. Also that year, Harmony had the great privilege to be invited as the only Pre-College student to perform at Lincoln Center’s 60th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee Gala as well as the Juilliard Spring Gala. Harmony had the honor of co-hosting the Lang Lang International Music Foundation’s Gala Concert, “Lang Lang & Friends: Reaching Dreams Through Music,” which was broadcast globally.
During the 2022-23 season Harmony will be presented in recital with the Harriman-Jewell Series (Kansas City, MO), Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series (Tempe, AZ), and will also perform alongside distinguished YCA alum, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott in a performance of Ravel’s La Valse for two pianos as part of Young Concert Artists’ special season finale performance at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in May 2023. She will also appear in performances with the Hawaii Symphony.
Harmony won First Prize in the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as The Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, The Brownville Concert Series Prize, Friends of Music Concerts Prize, The Harriman-Jewell Series Prize, and The Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series Prize.
In addition to her piano studies with Emanuel Ax and Veda Kaplinsky, Harmony also studies composition with Ira Taxin at Juilliard.
Growing up as a chess prodigy, she was awarded the title of Woman Candidate Master and holds the title of World Champion of her age group after winning the World Youth Chess Championships. In her free time, Harmony enjoys reading, drawing, photography, and birdwatching.
