Beiliang Zhu

About Beiliang

Heifetz alumna Beiliang Zhu attended the Institute for three summers (2006, 2007, and 2008) while it was located at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
Hailed by the New York Times as “particularly exciting”, and by the New Yorker as bringing “telling nuances” and being “elegant and sensual, stylishly wild”, Beiliang has given solo recitals at the Bach Festival Leipzig, Boston Early Music Festival, the Seoul Bach Festival, the Helicon Foundation, among others;
She went on to win First Prize – as well as the Audience Award – at the 18th International Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2012, becoming the first string player ever to receive the top prize performing on a Baroque instrument. In 2016, as part of the Institute’s 20th Anniversary season, Beiliang returned to the Institute as an Artist in Residence, making her debut in Staunton with a solo performance of J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 6 for Solo Cello on a five-string Baroque cello. 

he received her Master of Music from the Juilliard School in Historical Performance with Phoebe Carrai (Baroque cello) and Sarah Cunningham (Viola da Gamba), Bachelor of Music Degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Beiliang is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violoncello, under the guidance of Heifetz faculty artist Steven Doane, and a Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music.

As Beiliang seeks artistry in a wide range of repertoire and different roles as a modern cellist, baroque cellist, and violist da gamba, she has won a section cellist position of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra during her undergraduate years, and has held the principal cellist position of the Mercury Baroque orchestra in Houston.