Biography
Natalie Zhu has built parallel paths as Hilary Hahn’s recital partner, an independent soloist, and a dedicated chamber musician while serving as artistic director of Rhode Island’s Kingston Chamber Music Festival. Born in Beijing around 1975—she was described as thirty-one in a 2006 newspaper profile—she began piano studies at six under Xiao-Cheng Liu and gave her first Beijing recital at nine. At eleven she moved with her family to Los Angeles, continuing lessons with Li Ming-Qiang and Robert Turner before entering the Curtis Institute of Music at fifteen. There she worked with Gary Graffman for seven years, earned the school’s Rachmaninoff Award, and later completed a Master of Music and artist diploma at Yale under Claude Frank.
Her profile rose sharply in 1997 when fellow Curtis student Hilary Hahn invited her to become principal accompanist; the collaboration produced extensive tours and a 2005 Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mozart violin-and-piano sonatas, followed in 2007 by the solo recital disc Images on Meyer Media. Support from the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and the Astral Artists Award further advanced her work.
Zhu has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Bergen Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic, and additional orchestras across the United States and Asia. She has performed regularly as orchestral pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, Munich’s Herkulessaal, and Beijing Concert Hall. Her European debut took place in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et d’Orleans. Chamber partnerships include appearances with the Vermeer, Miami, and Daedalus Quartets as well as members of the Beaux Arts Trio.
Appointed artistic director of the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in 2009, Zhu has retained the post into the mid-2020s while also serving on the Curtis faculty as staff pianist. She contributed to several Alfred-label releases in the Suzuki Violin School series and, in 2023, accompanied cellist Clancy Newman on the Albany recording From Method to Madness: The American Sound.
Her profile rose sharply in 1997 when fellow Curtis student Hilary Hahn invited her to become principal accompanist; the collaboration produced extensive tours and a 2005 Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mozart violin-and-piano sonatas, followed in 2007 by the solo recital disc Images on Meyer Media. Support from the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and the Astral Artists Award further advanced her work.
Zhu has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Bergen Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic, and additional orchestras across the United States and Asia. She has performed regularly as orchestral pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, Munich’s Herkulessaal, and Beijing Concert Hall. Her European debut took place in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et d’Orleans. Chamber partnerships include appearances with the Vermeer, Miami, and Daedalus Quartets as well as members of the Beaux Arts Trio.
Appointed artistic director of the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in 2009, Zhu has retained the post into the mid-2020s while also serving on the Curtis faculty as staff pianist. She contributed to several Alfred-label releases in the Suzuki Violin School series and, in 2023, accompanied cellist Clancy Newman on the Albany recording From Method to Madness: The American Sound.
Albums
