This recital spans Romantic, modern, and contemporary sound worlds. Franz Schubert’s Sonata in A minor, D.784 opens with drama and introspection. Huang Anlun’s Dunhuang Dream paints vivid scenes of the ancient Silk Road. Three works by Aaron Copland—Passacaglia, Piano Blues, and Piano Variations—showcase his range from jazz-inflected charm to modernist rigor. The program closes with Percy Grainger’s virtuosic arrangement of George Gershwin’s “Love Walked In”, ending the journey in warmth and brilliance.
Zidong Zhou is an associate professor of piano and master supervisor at Wuhan Conservatory of Music, member of the Chinese Musicians Association, and honorary teacher of Steinway & Sons. He has won the gold medal at the Protege International Piano Competition in the United States (2016) and the Gold Medal at the Fine Arts Festival Piano Competition in the United States (2017). In recent years, he has held piano solo recitals successfully in many concert halls and grand theaters in the United States, Japan, Italy, Mainland China and Taiwan. In 2015, he was invited by the Carlo Della Giacoma Music Festival in Italy to successfully hold a piano solo concert. In 2016, he was invited to perform piano solo and chamber music at the world-famous Carnegie Hall. In 2019, he performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto with the Harmony Orchestra at the Shanxi Grand Theater.
Zhou has published many academic papers related to piano performance in journals; he has given special lectures in many professional music school and received high praise; he has participated in the writing of many piano tutorials. In 2018, he was employed as a part-time researcher at Bachu Culture and Art Research Center. In 2019, he attended the International Conference of Traditional Music (ICTM) World Congress and published a research report. He has guided many students to win prizes in piano competitions around the world. His students have been admitted to master’s and doctoral programs at top professional music schools in Europe and the United States.
In 2012, he was admitted to the University of Cincinnati, College- Conservatory of Music. In 2014, he received a full teaching assistantship from the Michigan State University for a doctoral degree, studied with the famous pianist and educator Professor Deborah Moriarty. During this period, he has been teaching undergraduate piano courses at the school; in 2017, he was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance.
