Born in Texas to Chinese immigrant parents, Nancy Zhou began the violin under the guidance of her father, who hails from a family of traditional musicians. She went on to study with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory while pursuing her interest in literature at Harvard University. Since 2019, she has been an Associated Artist of the Queen Elisabeth Chapel.

More than 20 years since her orchestral debut, Zhou has collaborated with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony, among others. A passionate soloist who cherishes chamber music collaborations and commits to the responsibility of education, Zhou has performed at many festivals, including the Verbier Festival, Tongyeong Music Festival, and Marvão Festival; she is a regular guest educator at various  international summer festivals, holding not only masterclasses but also workshops on  fundamental training and wellbeing for musicians.

Over the years, her interest in cultural heritage and the humanities manifested in a string of notable collaborations across the US and in China. In collaboration with the New Jersey Symphony and Xian Zhang, she presented Zhao Jiping's first violin concerto at Alice  Tully Hall; gave the US premieres of Unsuk Chin's Gran Cadenza for two solo violins with  Anne-Sophie Mutter; performed Chen Qigang's La joie de la Souffrance with the Rogue Valley  Symphony; and, in partnership with the La Jolla Symphony, gave the West Coast premiere of  Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1. On the other side of the globe, this past season saw Nancy Zhou bring three cornerstone concerti to China in a five-city tour; her collaborative partners included the Shanghai and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras, and the China and Hohhot Philharmonics.  

In the summer of 2025, Zhou embarked on a research trip with Canadian-born Chinese composer Vivian Fung to Zhexiang, China - the hometown village of the violinist's mother, a former professional folk dancer. The project culminated with a work for violin and electronics that explores the intersection of music as a cultural force and folk minority culture. In October 2024, Zhou recorded her debut album, STORIES (re)TRACED, in response to these questions. The critically acclaimed album – released in the summer of 2025 with Orchid Classics - features four seminal and inextricably connected works for solo violin, including Béla Bartók’s Sonata. 

The 25/26 season brings collaborations with the Milwaukee Symphony, Austin Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM, Orquestra Vigo 430, and the San Antonio Philharmonic, with whom she will give the world premiere of La Minerva, a violin concerto written by Latin Grammy®-nominated composer Juan Pablo Contreras.

Nancy Zhou will join The Tianjin Juilliard School as resident faculty in September 2026. Since 2019, she has served as an Associated Artist of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and from 2023-2026, was Professor of Violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.