Steinway Artist, Dr. Alvin Zhu has performed Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Gershwin, and Rachmaninoff concertos with orchestras around the world, appearing at Alice Tully Hall, Sydney Opera House, Beijing Concert Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall, Tianjin Grand Theater, Palais du Congress, Stadio Olimpico, and the Amphitheater in Chautauqua. He has recorded for NPR’s "From the Top" as a featured Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, Pittsburgh’s WQED radio, Beijing Youth Radio, and Steinway’s SPIRIO player-piano catalog. Zhu holds top prizes in international and national competitions including the West Virginia, Patrick Price, and Pittsburgh Young Artist International Competitions. As a juror, he has been on the panel of the 2021 Lang Lang International Music Festival in Ningbo and Shenzhen, 2021 Franz Liszt Youth, 2021 Paderewski, 2021 Paris Vivace, 2020 Singapore, and the 2018 Steinway International Piano Competitions. Zhu currently holds the position of Artistic Director of the International Piano Professionals Association's (IPPA) China Division and honorary positions as Overseas Artistic Consultant for both the Global Outstanding Chinese Artists Association (GOCAA) and the Suzhou Qiaolian Arts Ensemble.
He has given masterclasses at universities including Yale, Soochow, Texas State, Brigham Young, and Weber State; conservatories including Wuhan, Sichuan, Xinghai, Liu Shikun Arts School; and musical organizations including Steinway Beijing and Shanghai, Tianjin Grand Theater, and Lang Lang Music World in Hangzhou and Shenzhen. As an educator and scholar, Zhu is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and has researched the musical contributions of his paternal grandfather Gong Yi Zhu, a master piano pedagogue whose influence in China is still widely felt today. He has been a guest lecturer at the United States Embassy in Beijing, The Juilliard School in New York, Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and Soochow University in Taiwan.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhu produced a musical tribute entitled "Project Mompou" for healthcare and essential workers around the world. The video project features Zhu and five of his Tianjin Juilliard Pre-College students performing Spanish composer Federico Mompou's poignant "Impresiones Íntimas."
Zhu started piano and violin lessons at age four. Zhu holds BM, MM, and DMA degrees in piano performance from the Juilliard School in New York under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin.