Recital: Yuzhou Zhang – piano

The Programme

Yuzhou Zhang – piano

Sonata No 4 in F sharp major, Op 30
i. Andante
ii. Prestissimo volando

12 Études, Op 10

The Artist

Yuzhou Zhang started with the violin at six and piano followed at eight. He soon began at Junior Guildhall, studying violin with Erika Klemperer and piano with Chenyin Li. At 16, after deciding to pursue music as a career, he was accepted into Chetham’s School of Music to study violin with Benedict Holland and piano with Jonathan Middleton. He was then offered a scholarship to study at Trinity Laban, taking violin with Mayumi Fujikawa and piano with Hilary Coates. During this time, he also studied conducting with Richard Markson.

Yuzhou completed his BMus degree at the Royal College of Music, studying with Jianing Kong and has recently completed the 1-year MMus course at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Tatiana Sarkissova on a scholarship.

He has won numerous awards, being a prizewinner at the Jacques Samuel Piano Festival and Suffolk Festival of Performing Arts. He also won second prize in the Yamaha piano competition at Chetham’s. At Trinity, he won the John Longmire (Beethoven) competition, despite being the youngest student to enter, and reached the final of the Alfred Kitchin competition. Other prizes include first prize at the Emanuel Trophy piano competition and the Cleveland Institute of Music International Academy Piano Competition.

He has performed concertos and recitals in venues all around the UK and abroad, including Wigmore Hall, Meany Hall (USA), St James’s Piccadilly, Snape Maltings (broadcast on BBC Radio Suffolk), and St Bride’s. He has also been invited to many music festivals and courses across Europe and America, and was awarded a full scholarship to take part in the Seattle Piano Institute.

Chopin has a special place in many pianists’ hearts, and it has been a recent project of Yuzhou’s to learn and perform all 27 of Chopin’s etudes, and eventually all of his works.