Presented by the Royal Academy of Music
Yu Zhou started with the violin at 6 and piano followed at 8. He soon began studying at Junior Guildhall, studying violin with Erika Klemperer and piano with Chenyin Li. At 16, after deciding to pursue music as a career, he was accepted into Chetham's school of music to study violin with Benedict Holland and piano with Jonathan Middleton. He was then offered a scholarship to study at Trinity Laban, where he studied violin with Mayumi Fujikawa and piano with Hilary Coates. During this time, he also studied conducting with Richard Markson.
He completed his BMus degree studying with Jianing Kong at the Royal College of Music, where he earned a place on the RCM Gateway concert scheme and has recently completed a 1-year MMus at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Tatiana Sarkissova. He continues to study at RAM, working on a Professional Diploma.
He has won numerous awards, being a prizewinner at the Jaques Samuel piano festival and Suffolk festival of performing arts. He also won second prize in the Yamaha piano competition at Chetham's. At Trinity, he won the John Longmire (Beethoven) competition, despite being the youngest student to enter and reached the final of the Alfred Kitchin competition. He also won first prize at the Emanuel Trophy piano competition and recently won first prize at the Cleveland Institute of Music International Academy Piano Competition.
He has performed concertos and recitals in venues all around the UK and abroad, including Wigmore Hall, Meany Hall USA, St. James Piccadilly, St. Brides and a Snape Maltings concert which was broadcast on BBC Radio Suffolk. He has also been invited to many music festivals and courses across Europe and America, and was awarded a full scholarship to take part in the Seattle piano institute 2018.He is also active in the field of chamber music and works regularly with talented musicians.He enjoys studying scores and believes it's always important to be faithful to the composer, but also to make their genius accessible to a wider audience.
He hopes to continue to study and perform in competitions and concerts in order to bring music of the highest quality to audiences who need it in the future.