Haiou Zhang

Haiou Zhang

BiographY

Haiou Zhang is considered as one of the finest pianists in his generation. His Mozart CD with theHeidelberg Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Fey was selected as the official soundtrackfor the Spanish Netflix series ''Money Heist'' (La Casa de Papel) and received attentionworldwide. Meanwhile, his newest Glinka & Dvorak album received the Supersonic Award by Pizzicato and he was nominated for ICMA International Classical Music Award in November2021 for his solo album ''My 2020'' and two more ''Opus Klassik'' nominations for his Mozart CD with NDR Philharmonic String Players. All his 6 CD albums (label hänssler CLASSIC) havebeen selected by Lufthansa's onboard music program.

Haiou Zhang has a deep and unmistakable passion for piano chamber music, particularly forworks in the quintet and sextet repertoire. In recent concert seasons, he has been a regular guest at subscription series and festivals by the Berliner Philharmoniker, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2025/26 concert season, acclaimed pianist Haiou Zhang returns to the Weilburger Schlosskonzerte (Weilburg Festival), this time performing with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of rising Hungarian star conductor Martin Rajna. His season includes further high-profile engagements across the globe. In Bremerhaven and Emden, he will appear with the Bremerhaven Philharmonic, performing Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 under the direction of renowned Chinese conductor Renchang Fu. In the Czech Republic, Zhang takes the stage with the North Czech Philharmonic to perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 conducted by Maestro Charles Olivieri-Munroe. He willalso perform Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue in China with him and the Wuhan Philharmonic. Another season highlight includes a performance of the Yellow River Piano Concerto in Canada with the Ontario Philharmonic, led by chief conductor Marco Parisotto.
Continuing his successful collaboration with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, Haiou Zhang embarks on a major 10-concert tour of China, under the direction of chiefconductor Yeruham Scharovsky, with appearances in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

In addition to his concert career, Haiou Zhang continues to share his artistry as a pedagogue. Hehas been invited as a guest lecturer for piano masterclasses at leading institutions including the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), the Conservatoire de la Ville deLuxembourg, the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, and the Royal College of Music in London. He has also been invited to serve as a jury member for the 15th International German Piano Award (IGPA), which will take place at the Casals Forum of Kronberg Academy from November 21 to 23, 2025.

In the 2024/25 season, he made new recital appearances in London as part of the new Bechstein Hall series and returned to the Brucknerhaus Linz after his recital triumph five years ago. He also made his recital debuts in some of Germany’s most prestigious concert series, including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg (ProArte Hamburg) and the Mercatorhalle Philharmonie Duisburg (Duisburger Philharmoniker) — both of which were met with great acclaim and received prolonged standing ovations. Further highlights included the Colombian premiere of the Yellow River Piano Concerto in Bogotá with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia under the baton of chief conductor Yeruham Scharovsky. This performance was followed by a successful concert tour in China, performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which began at the Shanghai Concert Hall.
Additional engagements included Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Trier Philharmonic under Dutch maestro Jochem Hochstenbach, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Festival Orchestra of the Immling Festival, conducted by Maestra Cornelia von Kerssenbrock. He also launched new chamber music collaborations with violinist Yury Revich at the International Music Festival Koblenz and the festival Musikalischer Sommer in Ostfriesland, as well as several concerts with the Elphier Quartet.

The 2023/24 season featured a series of exciting debuts and highlights for Haiou Zhang. He performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 with the Qatar Philharmonic in Doha, and played five concerts in Germany featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, conducted by Jonathan Bloxham. His recital appearances included Konzerthaus Berlin and Ehrbar Saal in Vienna, where he presentedprofound interpretations of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 111 and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor. InAsia, he received enthusiastic acclaim with performances at Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, and major venues across China — including the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, Shenzhen Concert Hall, Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan and Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou. Another notable success was a German tour featuring six concerts with acclaimed violinist Tianwa Yang, performing an all-Beethoven program. The collaboration was praised by Süddeutsche Zeitung as ''a wonderfulunity of music-making.''

In 2022, Haiou Zhang made his sold-out orchestral debut with Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg (Pro Arte). At the same period have seen major concertsby Haiou Zhang in Germany's most prestigious venues: the great hall of the Philharmonie Berlin, the Gewandhaus Leipzig as well as the Meistersingerhalle Nuremberg or the Philharmonie Essen. Other milestones include Mozart Piano Concertos with Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Dvorak Piano Quintet Op. 81 with the Philharmonic String Quartet at the Berlin Philharmonic's official Welcome Back Week festival at the Chamber Music Hall of the Philharmonie Berlin. A special collaboration with the British pop legend Jarvis Cocker at the Berliner Festspiele in the production “Sleepless Nights” by BBC Radio 4.

Haiou Zhang launched his career in 2006 with celebrated debuts at the Braunschweig ClassixFestival, and has since appeared at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Kissinger Sommer, the Mozart Festival Augsburg, Festival international de musique de Besançon and many others. In 2010 he toured Canada in 7 concertswith Slovak Sinfonietta under the baton of Maestro Kerry Stratton (Beethoven piano concertoNo.5) acclaimed by both the audience and press: ''Pianist is on cusp of great career'', was the title of his concert review by Toronto Star. Another important invitation for him was twosubscription concerts (Mozart piano concerto K.467 with Heidelberg Symphony under chief conductor Thomas Fey) at Sala São Paulo presented by Mozarteum Brasileiro.

In 2010, he founded his own festival in Lower Saxony, Germany: the International Music FestivalBuxtehude/Altes Land/Harburg/Stade, which is aimed primarily at young audiences. During the past 15 years he has programmed over 200 concerts for the festival and it became one of themost dynamic classical music hub in Northern Germany. Alongside he was artistic director of the Öschberghof Klassik concert series in Donaueschingenfrom 2020 to 2023 and the Concert Grand Salon in Zurich in 2021, where he invited manyinternationally established ensembles, soloists and promoted his highly talented young pianistcolleagues.

Haiou Zhang performs as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, North and South Americaand Asia; his concert appearances have included venues such as the Hamburg Laeiszhalle,Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Nikolaisaal Potsdam, Max-Littmann Saal in BadKissingen, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Grand Theatre Shanghai, CBC Glenn Gould Studio inToronto, Sala São Paulo, Esplanade Concert Hall Singapore and many others.As soloist his musical partners in Germany were the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Nuremberg Symphony, the NWD Philharmonie, the Bochum Symphony, the Hamburg Symphony, the WKO Heilbronn, the Leipzig Philharmonic, the Heidelberg Symphony, the State Orchestras of Braunschweig and Oldenburg, the Brandenburg Symphony, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonie Festiva, the Bremerhaven Philharmonic, the Trier Philharmonic, as well as internationally with the Russian National Philharmonic, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony, the Macedonian Philharmonic, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic, the Filharmonie Hradec Králové in Czech Republic, the Slovak Sinfonietta, the Estonian Sinfonietta, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, the Siberian Symphony Orchestra, the Voronezh State Symphony Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic, the Changsha Symphony Orchestra etc. and conductors such as Andrew Manze, Jonathan Bloxham, Vladimir Spivakov, Nabil Shehata, Vahan Mardirossian, Srba Dinić, Vakhtang Kakhdize, Frieder Bernius, Gerd Schaller, Thomas Fey, Martijn Dendievel, Samuel Lee, Kai Bumann, Wojciech Rajski, Marc Niemann, Hendrik Vestmann, James P. Liu, Vladimir Verbitsky, Robert Stehli, Juri Gilbo, Florian Merz etc.

Haiou Zhang's chamber music partners include the vision string quartet, Quatuor Hermès,Quatuor Diotima, Gewandhaus Quartett, Mercore String Quartet, WDR Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players, Hába Quartet, Elphier Quartet and Eldbjørg Hemsing, Sarah Christian,Solenne Paidassi, Alexandra Preucil, Benedict Kloeckner, Alexander Hülshoff, Leonid Gorokhov,Christoph Heesch, Jacob Shaw etc.

He is heard regularly in concerts and interviews for various radio stations and television, such asCCTV China, SF1 Switzerland, NPR, BBC3, CBC, Classical FM96.3, Ontario TV Canada, Radio4 Netherland, ORF 1 Austria, Radio New Zealand, France télévision 3 and has strong presenceat German classical radio landscape at BR-Klassik, NDR Kultur, WDR3, SWR2, Hr2, MDR Klassik, rbb3, Deutschlandradio Kultur and the Deutsche Welle TV.

His teaching activities covers prominent music conservatories in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Xiamen and in Italy - Cagliari, Calabria, Brescia and Catania, aswell in the USA, Canada and Singapore.

Born in China, Haiou Zhang first studied at the Central Conservatory of Music attached school inBeijing with Prof. Guangren Zhou, Prof. Manchun Chen and Prof. Hui Zhong - before continuingat the Musikhochschule Hannover (Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media) with Prof.Bernd Goetzke. In autumn 2011 he graduated in Hanover with full of high notes in all subjects.
Haiou Zhang speaks Chinese, German and English fluently and is passionate about literature,history, multiple culture, geography, photography and classical Italian menswear/tailoring.
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