About Me

Grew up in Southern China, Ziming (Christopher) Zhu is a current fellow and the horn player with The Orchestra Now (TON) at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts of Bard College. 

 

As an orchestral musician, he has appeared with many notable groups, such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Macao Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Ballet, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Some celebrity conductors he has worked with include Marin Alsop, JoAnn Falletta, Jaap Van Zweiden, Ruth Reinhardt, and James Judd. Previously, he was a fellow with the National Orchestral Institute, Brevard Music Center, and Asian Youth Orchestra. He had also served as a substitute musician with the New World Symphony. As a well-traveled musician, he has performed in many premier venues such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia, Tokyo Opera City in Japan, National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Hong Kong Culture Center. His performances have been recorded and broadcast by several classical radio stations around the country, including WQED in Pittsburgh, WETA in Washington D.C, WMHT in Hudson Valley, Performance Today by National Public Radio (NPR), as well as Naxos Records.

 

He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Master of Music degree, where he studied with William Caballero, the principal horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. While at school, he served as principal horn with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic several times, including the Corno Obbligato in the performance of Mahler’s 5th Symphony in January 2020. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he graduated in 2017 with first-class honours.

 

As an avid chamber musician, he had worked and performed with different types of chamber music groups and repertoire, including horn trios (Brahms, Reinecke, Ewazen), quintets with piano and winds or strings (Mozart), wind quintets and sextet, and brass quintets.

 

Currently residing in Hudson Valley, he enjoys photography, reading, cooking, and of course, making and listening to music.