Haiou Zhang • piano

Biography

Haiou Zhang is considered one of the finest pianists of his generation. His Mozart CD with the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Fey was recorded as the official soundtrack for the Spanish Netflix series “Money of the House” and gained worldwide attention.  

He combines a deep and unmistakable passion with piano chamber music – especially with works from the repertoire for piano quintet and sextet. In recent concert seasons, he has been a regular guest in subscription series and festivals of renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In the 2025/26 season, Haiou Zhang will once again be performing at the Weilburg Castle Concerts – this time together with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the young Hungarian star conductor Martin Rajna. Further engagements will take him back to Bremerhaven and Emden with Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, where he will perform with the Bremerhaven Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Chinese conductor Renchang Fu. He will perform Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the North Bohemian Philharmonic Teplice in Czechia and Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Wuhan Philharmonic under the baton of star conductor Charles Olivieri-Munroe. Also on the program is the “Yellow River” Piano Concerto in Canada with the Ontario Philharmonic under principal conductor Marco Parisotto. For the second time, Haiou Zhang will embark on a major concert tour of China with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia under principal conductor Yeruham Scharovsky, performing a total of 10 concerts in cities including Beijing and Shanghai. Haiou Zhang has been invited as a guest lecturer for master classes in piano at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, the Karlsruhe University of Music, and the Royal College of Music in London.

In the 24/25 season, he made his debut in the new Bechstein Hall series in London. His recitals at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg (with ProArte Hamburg), the Philharmonie Mercatorhalle Duisburg (concert series of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra), and the Brucknerhaus Linz were celebrated with standing ovations lasting several minutes. 
Haiou Zhang also gave the Colombian premiere of the “Yellow River Piano Concerto” with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia under principal conductor Yeruham Scharovsky in Bogotá. In December 2024, he toured China with the orchestra (Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3) and caused a sensation at the renowned Shanghai Concert Hall. 

Further performances on 24/25 include Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Immling Festival Orchestra under Maestra Cornelia von Kerssenbrock at the Immling Festival, Liszt's Piano Concerto in E-flat major with the Trier Philharmonic Orchestra under GMD Jochen Hochstenbach, as well as chamber music performances with violinist Yury Revich as a guest at the Musikalischer Sommer Ostfriesland, the International Music Festival Koblenz, and several projects with the Elphier Quartet. 

Highlights in 2023/24 included piano recitals at the Konzerthaus Berlin and Ehrbar Hall in Vienna, featuring Beethoven's Sonata Op. 111 and Liszt's Sonata in B minor. Exciting debuts with the Qatar Philharmonic with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 and five concerts with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Northwest German Philharmonic under its new principal conductor Jonathan Bloxham. He also thrilled audiences once again with recitals at the Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, the Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, and in China at top venues such as the NCPA Beijing, Shenzhen Concert Hall, Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou, and Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan. Another tour with six concerts in Germany will feature a Beethoven program with violinist Tianwa Yang, described by the Süddeutsche Zeitung as a “wonderful unity of music-making.” 

In October 2022, Haiou Zhang made his orchestral debut with ProArte Hamburg in the sold-out Grand Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, receiving a standing ovation. At the same time, Haiou Zhang gave major concerts in Germany's most prestigious venues: the Grand Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Meistersingerhalle Nuremberg, and the Philharmonie Essen. Meanwhile, in November 2021, he was nominated for an ICMA for his solo album “My 2020” (hänssler CLASSIC) and received two further “Opus Klassik” nominations for “Mozart piano concertos No. 12 + 13”. All six of his CD albums have been selected for Lufthansa's in-flight music program and are also receiving a lot of attention in Japan. He has worked successfully with various sound engineers, including Gernot von Schultzendorff, Eckhard Glauche, Michael Bramman, Martin Nagorni, Elisabeth Kemper, Holger Siedler, and Eckhard Steiger. 

Other highlights include Mozart's Piano Concertos KV 414 and KV 415 with the German Chamber Orchestra Berlin, Dvorak's Piano Quintet Op. 81 with the Philharmonic String Quartet of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Welcome Back Week Festival in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic, and a special encounter with British pop legend Jarvis Cocker at the Berlin Festival in the production “Sleepless Nights” (BBC Radio 4). 

Haiou Zhang performs as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. His performance venues include the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Beethoven House in Bonn, the Nikaolaisaal in Potsdam, the Max Littmann Hall in Bad Kissingen, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, the Sala São Paulo in Brazil, the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, and many others. His partners include the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Andrew Manze and the Russian National Philharmonic under Vladimir Spivakov. He also works with conductors such as Vahan Mardirossian, Nabil Shehata, Srba Dinic, Martijn Dendievel, Samuel Lee, Hendrik Vestmann, Marc Niemann, Vakhtang Kakhidze, Mykola Diadiura, Juri Gilbo, Vladimir Verbitsky, Frieder Bernius, Florian Merz, Kai Bumann, Wojciech Raiski, Robert Stehli, Lihua Tan, James P. Liu, and others, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Rhineland-Palatinate State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Leipzig Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Orchestras of Braunschweig and Oldenburg, the South Westphalia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Bremerhaven and Trier, as well as internationally with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Sopot, the Estonian Sinfonietta, the Slovak Sinfonietta, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, and the Siberian Symphony Orchestra, the Voronezh State Symphony Orchestra, the Macedonia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, the Wuhan Philharmonic, and the Xiamen Philharmonic, among others.

Born in China, Haiou Zhang first studied at the Central Conservatory in Beijing before continuing his studies at the University of Music, Drama, and Media in Hanover with Prof. Bernd Goetzke. After numerous competition successes, Haiou Zhang launched his career in 2005/06 with acclaimed performances at the Braunschweig Classix Festival and has since appeared at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Kissinger Sommer, and many others. In the 2009/2010 season, he went on an extensive tour of Canada with seven concerts (Beethoven Piano Concerto in E-flat major) with the Slovak Sinfonietta under Canadian conductor Kerry Stratton and received considerable acclaim, for example from the Toronto Star, which wrote: “Pianist is at the beginning of a great career.” Other important engagements took him to Brazil with the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra under principal conductor Thomas Fey (Mozart Piano Concerto KV467) at the invitation of the Mozarteum Brasileiro, where he was enthusiastically celebrated by the audience twice in the sold-out Sala São Paulo. 

In 2010, he founded his own festival in Lower Saxony: the International Music Festival Buxtehude/Altes Land/Harburg/Stade, which is aimed primarily at a young audience. He has programmed and successfully conducted over 200 concerts. In addition, he was appointed music director of the Öschberghof Klassik concert series in Donaueschingen (2020-2023). During the pandemic, he was artistic director of the international concert series Concerts Grand Salon in Zurich, Switzerland (2021). He has strongly supported many highly talented young colleagues, such as Eva Gevorgyan, Onute Grazinyte, Philipp Scheucher, and Yeon-Min Park.

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

He regularly performs in concerts and gives interviews for various radio stations and television channels such as CCTV China, SF1 Switzerland, NPR, BBC3, CBC, Classical FM96.3, Ontario TV Canada, Radio 4 Netherlands, ORF 1 Austria, Radio New Zealand, France Télévision 3, and has a strong presence in the German classical radio landscape on BR-Klassik, NDR Kultur, WDR3, Hr2, SWR2, rbb3, MDR Klassik, Deutschlandradio Kultur, and Deutsche Welle TV.

Grand Prix at the fifth Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition and at the first Piano Duo Competition in China: Haiou Zhang was awarded the Audience Prize at the Piano Olympics of the Bad Kissingen Summer Festival, the Gundlach Music Prize, and the Dr. Maria Zbick Artist Prize.

He teaches at major music conservatories in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Xiamen, as well as in Italy—Cagliari, Calabria, Brescia, and Catania—and in the USA, Canada, and Singapore. He is a visiting professor at Nanhai Music Conservatory in China.

Haiou Zhang speaks fluent German, English, and Chinese, and is passionate about literature, history, multiculturalism, geography, photography, and Italian menswear.