With deep musicality and virtuosity, Jing Zhao has established herself internationally as one of the most versatile cellists of her generation.
Jing has performed with numerous prestigious conductors such as Yuri Bashmet, Myung-whun Chung, Jean Fournet, Eliahu Inbal, Kenichiro Kobayashi, Lorin Maazel, Ricardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, Mikhael Pletnev, Muhai Tang, Jaap van Zweden, among others. With orchestras including the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Symphoniker Hamburg – Laeiszhalle Orchester, Lubeck philharmonic, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Philharmonica della Scala, Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, Sydney Symphony, Singapore Symphony, NHK Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic and KBS Philharmonic.
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A passionate chamber musician, Jing is playing regularly with artists such as Martha Argerich, Elena Bashkirova, Guy Braunstein, Boris Berezovsky, Bertrand Chamayou, Michael Guttman, Daishin Kashimoto, Denis Kozhukhin, Eric Le Sage, Konstantin Lifschitz, Igor Levit, Emmanuel Pahud, Trevor Pinnock, Vadim Repin, Antoine Tamestit, Maxim Vengerov and Lilya Zilberstein.
Jing Zhao is the co-artistic director of the Pietrasanta in Concerto Music Festival in Italy and is an artist in residence at the Crans-Montana Classics in Switzerland as well as a permanent special guest at the Odessa Classics, which was based in Odessa, Ukraine and now make its home in various European cities. The great pianist Martha Argerich has chosen to perform and record the Tchaikovsky trio with Jing ZHAO and Dora Schwartzberg during her festival in Lugano, where she is now a regular guest. Other festivals where she performs include the celebrated Jerusalem Music Festival, Zagreb International Festival, Rolandseck, Bad Kissingen, Istanbul International Festival, Argerich’s Beppu and Hamburg Festival, La Folles Journees, among others.
Jing Zhao has recorded 5 CD’s for Victor entertainment in Japan. Two other CDs which was recorded before the pandemic with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring respectively the Shostakovich cello concerto, and two Tan Dun’s Cello Concertos, will be released in the upcoming season.
The 1st prize winner of the prestigious ARD international competition in Munich in 2005 and the Exxon Mobil Music award recipient in Japan in 2009. Jing Zhao started her music studies in China and Japan, she received generous help from Maestro Seiji Ozawa early in her career and then moved to Berlin to study at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, she also studied with the renowned Prof David Geringas in the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and privately with Yo-Yo Ma and Rostropovich.
Jing currently plays on a Matteo Goffriller Cello(1711) on generous loan to her from a private Foundation.
