Ling ZHU, born in 2007, she began playing the cello at five years old. In 2016, she was admitted as the top-ranked candidate to the Music Middle School affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Since 2022, she has been studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw), first in the preparatory course (Vorbereitungslehrgang), and currently in the bachelor’s program with Prof. Stefan Kropfitsch.

Ling Zhu has received numerous awards, including the Second Prize at the 3rd Gustav Mahler Cello Competition in 2021, and the First Prize along with the Judge’s Best Performance Award in the chamber music category at the Wiener Virtuosen Music Competition the same year. Her earlier achievements include top prizes at the Osaka International Music Competition, the China Youth Music Competition (Hummingbird Award), and the “Hai Qu Cup” Youth Cello Competition in Shanghai.

At the age of eight, she performed D. Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody Op. 68 with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra at the prestigious Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

Masterclasses with Arto Noras, Natalie Clein, Claudio Bohórquez, Troels Svane, Julian Lloyd Webber have also been sources of musical inspiration for her.