Andrew Zhou – 2012

A pianist always striving for adventurous, thoughtful, and challenging programming, Andrew Zhou has concertized in major venues in Los Angeles, Boston, and Paris, giving performances described as “disciplined and sensitive” (San Francisco Classical Voice) as well as possessing “une souplesse remarquable” and “une grande sensibilité” (Anaclase). He has collaborated with the Callithumpian Consort, Discovery Ensemble, and the Quatuor Diotima, and has worked with composers Unsuk Chin, Tristan Murail, Roberto Sierra, Christopher Stark, and Christian Wolff, as well as conductors Alexandre Bloch, Courtney Lewis, and Bradley Lubman.
In April 2012, he curated a festival and symposium in Ithaca, New York, with Walter Zimmermann as composer-in-residence. Festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center, the Centre d’arts Orford, and the International Holland Music Sessions. Most recently, he performed as a soloist in the Austrian premiere of Chin’s “Double Concerto” for prepared piano and percussion (2002) in the presence of the composer as part of the Klangspuren Schwaz festival (Austria).
A recent finalist and laureate at the 2012 International Piano Competition of Orléans in France, the pianist was awarded four prizes for the best interpretation of a work by Isang Yun and Olivier Greif, as well as the Chevillion-Bonnaud performer prize (for the best première given at the competition) and an award from the Samson François foundation.
His primary teachers include Xak Bjerken (Cornell University, where he was awarded the John James Blackmore Prize), Bruce Brubaker (New England Conservatory, where he received the Beneficent Society Scholarship), and Thomas Schultz (Stanford University). He has also participated in coachings and lessons with, among others, Emanuel Ax, Peter Serkin, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Stephen Drury, Jacques Rouvier, Ursula Oppens, members of the St. Lawrence and Borromeo String Quartets, as well as members of the Ensemble Modern.

Awards :

• Special Distinction Prize “Samson François”
• Special Distinction Prize “Isang Yun”
• Special Distinction Prize “Olivier Greif”
• Interprétation Prize André Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud