DaXun Zhang has appeared as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Tokyo Symphony, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony. He has given recitals in the U.S., Canada, Panama, Japan, Korea, and China. As a chamber musician, he has appeared in music festivals such as the La Jolla Summer Fest, Music@Menlo, Strings in Mountains, and Vancouver Summer Combustion, and was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two. He has won an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Young Concert Artists International Auditions, La Jolla Music Society Prize, Orchestra New England Soloist Prize, Fergus Prize, 2003 WAMSO Competition, International Society of Bassists Solo Competition, and the grand prize of the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition.

Zhang has performed extensively with the Silk Road Project. His recordings include Bassic Bach and Ditto, and for Deutsche Grammophon he has recorded Pressler Connection and two albums with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, New Impossibilities and Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon.

Zhang comes from a family of bassists in Harbin, China. He started playing the instrument at age 9 and studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at age 11. He continued his studies in the U.S. at the Interlochen Arts Academy and received his artist diploma at the Indiana University School of Music, where he worked with Lawrence Hurst. He has served on the faculty of Northwestern University and was previously an associate professor of double bass at the University of Texas at Austin. In the fall of 2019, he joined The Tianjin Juilliard School as resident faculty.