The Forge

The ‘outstanding young Chinese-American pianist’ Jessica Zhu (The Independent) received warm praise for her Wigmore Hall debut, given as part of the Park Lane Group’s Young Artists Series in December 2011. Her performance of Haydn E flat Sonata, wrote Michael Church, ‘drew out its symphonic elements,’ and she gave the second movement ‘a warm and honeyed tone.’ He continued: ‘What she achieved with Liszt’s tone-poem ‘Vallée d’Obermann’ was magnificent. Starting with the serene descending theme, she unerringly found the right sonority for every phase in this dramatic landscape-evocation, creating an almost tangible stillness in the meditative sections, and thunder at the climaxes.’

Winning the First Prize at the 2011 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, and the Audience Prize at the Sussex International Piano Competition the year before, Jessica Zhu has received numerous invitations for concerto performances. Most recently she has appeared with the Croydon Symphony Orchestra at the Fairfield Hall in an electrifying performance of Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and with the Finchley Chamber Orchestra in Mozart’s Concerto in D minor, K466, after which the audience demanded an encore. She has received further invitations to perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor under Darrell Davison.

Jessica made her orchestral debut in 2006 as a student of Nancy Weems at the University of Houston, when she played Prokoviev Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Houston Symphony. She has since performed with many orchestras in America including the Clear Lake Symphony, the Irving Symphony in Dallas, Fort Worth Civic Symphony, the Houston Civic Symphony.  

In 2009 Jessica was awarded the highly coveted Marshall Scholarship, one of just forty awards given annually to all disciplines in American academic and arts institutions for two years study in the UK at post-graduate level. She took up a Masters programme at the the Guildhall School of Music & Dramas, studying with Joan Havell, and graduated with distinction. She is now on a Fellowship at the Guildhall studying with Paul Roberts and Ronan O’Hora.

As a current Park Lane Group Young Artist Jessica has performed, in addition to her Wigmore Hall debut, at St. James’s Piccadilly, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and at the Purcell Room (in a recital of  works by British and American composers). She has performed at the City of London Festival and next season will give a recital in the Manchester Mid-day Concert Series.

Believing in using music to reach and educate audiences without easy access to the arts, Jessica is on the LiveMusicNow young artist scheme, performing in hospitals, elderly homes, and special education schools throughout the UK.

Jessica is very grateful for the support of the George and Charlotte Balfour Award, JM Finn Co, The Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and the Marshall Scholarships.