Jessica Zhu is a Chinese-American pianist who is pursuing postgraduate studies in piano performance under the tutelage of Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...

, with full scholarship as a 2009 Marshall Scholar

Marshall Scholarship

The Marshall Scholarship, a postgraduate scholarships available to Americans, was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when the Marshall Aid Commemoration Act was passed in 1953. The scholarships serve as a living gift to the United States of America in recognition of the post-World War...

.

Having made her debut at age 19 with the Houston Symphony in Jones Hall, she has soloed with numerous orchestras, including the Clear Lake Symphony, the Irving Symphony in Dallas, Fort Worth Civic Symphony, Brazos Valley Symphony in College Station, the Moores School Symphony Orchestra, and the Houston Civic Symphony.

Zhu has also performed at the Texas Music Festival, Aspen Summer Festival in Colorado, and the Banff Arts Centre in Canada. She has been featured on ABC Television Network KTRK Channel-13 Visions program and KUHF 88.7 FM radio The Front Row arts magazine.

Education

Zhu completed her undergraduate studies in 2009 Summa Cum Laude from the University of Houston

University of Houston

The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

 (Moores School of Music

Moores School of Music

The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music is the music school of the University of Houston. The Moores School offers the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance, conducting, theory and composition, music history...

), where she studied with renowned pianist-pedagogue Nancy Weems. She was also a student of the much sought-after pre-college teacher John Weems for six years.

Zhu has been invited to participate in master classes of pianists such as Pascal Rogé

Pascal Rogé

Pascal Rogé is a French pianist. His playing includes the works of compatriot composers Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Poulenc, among others. However, his repertoire also covers the German masters Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven.- Biography :Rogé first appeared in public in...

, Angela Hewitt

Angela Hewitt

Angela Hewitt, OC, OBE is a Canadian classical pianist. She holds British nationality through her father, Godfrey, who was the organist and choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa, Ontario for almost fifty years.-Career:...

, Anton Kuerti

Anton Kuerti

Anton Kuerti, OC is an Austrian-born Canadian pianist, music teacher, composer, and conductor. Since his performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra at age 11, he has developed international recognition as a solo pianist, particularly focusing on the works of Beethoven...

, Stanislav Ioudenitch

Stanislav Ioudenitch

Stanislav Ioudenitch , is a pianist from the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. He was a Gold Medalist at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, tying for first place with Olga Kern...

, Antonio Pompa-Baldi

Antonio Pompa-Baldi

-Life:He graduated from the Umberto Giordano Conservatory of Foggia in 1993.After graduating, he moved to Napoli, where he studied with the Italian professor Annamaria Pennella.He also studied for about 18 months with the pianist Aldo Ciccolini....

, Peter Frankl

Peter Frankl

Peter Frankl is a Hungarian-born British pianist. He mainly performs music from the Classical period , the Romantic period and the early Modern period...

, Abbey Simon

Abbey Simon

-Education:Simon began lessons with David Saperton at the age of five. At the age of eight, Simon was accepted by Józef Hofmann as a scholarship student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he trained with fellow classmates Jorge Bolet and Sidney Foster. Simon also took lessons...

, Yoheved Kaplinsky

Yoheved Kaplinsky

Yoheved "Veda" Kaplinsky is an award-winning classical pianist, lecturer and professor of music at the Juilliard School...

, and Nelita True.

Concerts and Performances

In April 2010, Zhu performed with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra

Worthing Symphony Orchestra

The Worthing Symphony Orchestra is the professional orchestra for the town of Worthing. It is the only professional orchestra in the English county of West Sussex. Founded in 1926, the orchestra was the first municipal orchestra in Britain....

 in Sussex under the baton of John Gibbons. A frequent guest recitalist, she has been invited to perform for the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy in Chicago in July 2009.

Zhu has also performed recitals for the Rockport Performing Arts Series in Rockport, Texas, the San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club, Missouri State University Fite Family Music Festival Young Artist Series, the McKinney Musical Arts Society in Dallas, the Wichita Falls Symphony League's First Night in the Falls Arts Festival. As the grand-prize winner of the Texas Entergy Young Artist Competition in 2006, she gave her debut recital in Zilkha Hall of the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts is a theater in Houston, Texas, USA. Opened to the public in 2002, the theater is located downtown on the edge of the Houston Theater District. Hobby Center features 60-foot-high glass walls with views of Houston's skyscrapers, Tranquility Park and Houston...

in downtown Houston.

Competitions and Prizes

Zhu won the First Prize at the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition 2011.
She is also a laureate of the Sussex International Piano Competition 2010, receiving Third Prize and the Audience Prize. Named the National Winner of the Young Artist Piano Competition of the 2008 Music Teachers National Association piano competitions in Denver, she received a Steinway & Sons grand piano. Zhu was also first-prize winner of the 2008 San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Young Artist Competition and the silver medalist in the 2004 Junior Isabel Scionti Piano Solo Competition.