American violinist Kevin Zhu first gained worldwide attention at age 11, taking 1st Prize in the 2012 Menuhin Competition. His young career has since taken him to renowned concert halls across the globe, ranging from the Konzerthaus Berlin to the Esplanade in Singapore, London’s Royal Festival Hall to the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, and Bozar Brussels to The Kennedy Center.

Kevin is a recipient of the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 1st prize winner of the 55th Paganini International Violin Competition in 2018, in Genoa, Italy. He has earned praise in varying repertoire for both “infinite delicacy” and “wild intensity, the audience crushed in their seats by the violence of what had happened” (RTBF Belgium). His playing is acclaimed for “absolute virtuosity, almost blinding in its incredible purity” (L’ape musicale) yet also “has soul, character, an inner life, with meticulousness and a great deal of sensitivity” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten).

The 2024/25 season continues with Kevin performing Shostakovich with Yaron Traub and the Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein, Dvořák with David Hoose and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and Emmanuel Villaume and the Prague Philharmonia, and Paganini with Eric Lederhandler and the Orchestra Nuove Musiche, as well as recital appearances across the United States, Mexico, and China.

​In the 2023/24 season, Kevin made his Kennedy Center debut performing Bernstein’s “Serenade” (after Plato’s Symposium). He returned to the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and Victoria Hall in Singapore, and toured with cellist Jan Vogler and pianist Andrew Armstrong. Kevin concluded the season with a multi-city recital tour across China and made his debut at the Esplanade Concert Hall with Shostakovich’s first violin concerto.​

Other recent performing highlights include concerts on Paganini’s famed violin “Il Cannone,” concerto appearances in Beijing and at the historic Reggia di Caserta in Italy, and recitals in Santiago de Chile and Montréal’s Salle Bourgie.

Kevin is also a passionate chamber musician, frequently collaborating with artists such as Louis Lortie, Lawrence Power and Boris Giltburg.​ He has been featured on ABC Eyewitness News, BBC Radio 3, and RAI Radio 3, and also serves as the Culture Ambassador of the Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation of China.

Kevin studied with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin at The Juilliard School, where he holds a Bachelor’s degree.

Kevin Zhu is a Violin Channel Artist. He performs on the c1700 “ex-Petri” Antonio Stradivari violin, on loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.