Jing Zhao, cello (Germany)

 

Born in Beijing, she studied at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music, then at the Tokyo College of Music. Participated in the masterclasses of Mario Brunello and Georg Faust at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. In 2005, she won the 1st prize at the renowned ARD International Music Competition in Munich. In 2009 received Exxon Mobil Award in Japan.

 

Seiji Ozawa invited her with the violinist Vadim Repin, pianist Lang Lang and signer Kathleen Battle to perform for the opening new-year concert of the China Grand Theater in Beijing. He also was instrumental in helping her move to Berlin where she studied at the Karajan Academy, as well as studying privately with Yo-Yo Ma and Mstislav Rostropovich, who later made it possible for her to enter the class of David Geringas in the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

 

Jing Zhao has performed with the world’s best orchestras and noted conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Mazel, Ricardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Myung-whun Chung, Muhai Chang, Mikhael Pletnev, Yuri Bashmet, Kenichiro Kobayashi, Jean Fournet and Eliahu Inbal, etc. Among her ensemble partners are Emmanuel Pahud, Guy Braustein, Daishin Kashimoto, Paul Meyer, Boris Berezovsky, Eric le Sage, Antoine Tamestit, Konstantin Lifschitz and Trevor Pinnock. She toured in Asia with Myung-whun Chung. Recorded the Tchaikovsky trio with Martha Argerich and Dora Schwarzberg during the festival in Lugano. Participated in festivals in Jerusalem, Zagreb, Bonn, Bad Kissingen, Istanbul, in the Martha Argerich’s festival in Beppu (Japan), “Crazy Days” in Nantes, etc.

 

Jing Zhao recorded five albums at Victor Entertainment in Japan. In 2015, she expects to release a new album of the Shostakovich cello concerto with orchestra (recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London). The musician plays a Stradivarius Cello on loan to her from a private foundation.