About this Artist
Since his gold medal win at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, 24-year-old Chinese pianist HAOCHEN ZHANG has captivated audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless imagination, and spectacular virtuosity. Haochen Zhang’s debut at the BBC Proms 2014 received rave reviews for his impressive precision and expressive and delicate playing, with Ivan Hewitt from The Telegraph saying, “He made the Allegretto dance with Mendelssohnian lightness and Lisztian diablerie, and played the melody of the Quasi Adagio with melting softness.”
A passionate and insightful programmer, Zhang continues to cultivate his reputation through major performances and debuts every year. Highlights of the 2014/15 season include return invitations to Pacific Symphony, La Roque d’Anthéron Festival in France, recitals in Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing among others, as well as debuts with the LA Phil with Xian Zhang, the Warsaw Philharmonic with Jerzy Semkow, and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbücken with Myung-Whun Chung. In the spring of 2015 Haochen will be the soloist for a tour with the NDR Hamburg and Thomas Hengelbrock in Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai.
Zhang is also an avid chamber musician, collaborating with such colleagues as the Shanghai String Quartet, and he is frequently invited by chamber music festivals in the U.S.
Zhang is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied under Gary Graffman. He was previously trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shenzhen Arts School, where he was admitted in 2001 at the age of 11 to study with Professor Dan Zhaoyi.