Leia Zhu

Zhu was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and raised in Northumberland.^[5][6] After hearing the violin on the radio as a young child, she asked her parents if she could learn to play.^[2][7] She received a violin from her grandmother at the age of three, and the first piece she learned to play was "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".^[8][9][10] She later studied with Itzhak Rashkovsky.^[2]

She attended St Edward's School, a boarding school in Oxford, leaving full-time education in 2023 with eight A* grades at GCSE.^[11] In 2024, she completed the Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA) from the London Institute of Banking & Finance at the age of seventeen.^[12][13]

Zhu made her public debut at the age of four at Newcastle City Hall at the North East Last Night of the Proms, before an audience of around 2,000.^[14][15][2] She first performed overseas at the age of six, touring nine cities across Spain with an American orchestra.^[16][9][2] In 2019, at the age of twelve, she became the youngest artist signed by HarrisonParrott, represented by its co-founder and executive chairman Jasper Parrott.^[17][18] In 2021, at the age of fourteen, she became Artist-in-Residence of the London Mozart Players.^[19][18][6]

As a soloist, Zhu has appeared with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. Her performances have taken place at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, European Parliament, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall, Guildhall, Berlin Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, KKL Luzern, Mariinsky Theatre, Konzerthaus Berlin and BOZAR. Zhu has appeared at festivals including the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Mozartfest Würzburg, White Nights Festival and Flâneries Musicales de Reims.^{[19][20][7][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]}

In 2019, at the age of twelve, she performed Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Mariinsky Orchestra at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg.^[26][1]

In August 2021, Zhu performed Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle at BMW Classics in Trafalgar Square.^[32][33] In December 2021, Zhu performed a violin solo of "You Raise Me Up" with the Irish band Westlife during a WeChat livestream reportedly viewed by 27 million people.^[2][34]

She made her debut with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Paavo Järvi, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in an Orpheum Foundation concert at the Tonhalle Zürich in 2023.^[21][35]

Zhu made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2024, appearing in the CBeebies Proms.^[27] Later in 2024, Zhu opened the Khachaturian International Festival, performing Khachaturian's Violin Concerto with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra under Sergey Smbatyan. The concert was presented in partnership with UNICEF to mark World Children's Day and the 35th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.^[36][37]

In 2025, she performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, presented by The Rest Is History podcast.^[38]

Zhu has recorded Tigran Mansurian's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra under Sergey Smbatyan in a project marking the composer's 85th birthday.^[39]

In February 2025, she released Saint-Saëns: The Complete Concertos on Berlin Classics with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Howard Griffiths.^[40][34] The recording received a five-star review from BBC Music Magazine and was longlisted for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Bestenliste 2/2025).^[3][41] For the recording, Zhu received the Opus Klassik Young Talent of the Year Award in 2025.^[4]

Reviewing Zhu's Saint-Saëns: The Complete Concertos in BBC Music Magazine, Christopher Dingle praised her "persistently dazzling fingerwork", "searching poetry" and musical understanding of the works, describing the recording as "quite a debut".^[3]

Reviewing Bows, Strings and Dreams in The Strad, Lauren Wesley-Smith wrote that the book succeeds in "dispelling the mystique of life as an elite performer", and noted its combination of professional experiences and personal anecdotes.^[10]

• Opus Klassik Young Talent of the Year (2025)^[4]
• Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award nominee (2025)^[42]
• Classic FM 30 Under 30 (2022)^[43]
• BBC Music Magazine Rising Star (2021)^[2]

Zhu has appeared on ITV, Channel 4, ZDF and Bayerischer Rundfunk television programmes.^{[6][44][45][46][47][48]} Her performances have been broadcast by BBC Radio 3, RTÉ lyric fm and Deutschlandradio.^[19][49][50] She has appeared on BBC Radio 3's In Tune programme and has been featured by publications including BBC Music Magazine, The Strad, Classic FM, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express and the Chronicle.^{[51][52][9][53][16]} Under the name "The Violin Girl", Zhu posts performance, practice and study videos online to a substantial following.^[11][45]

Zhu has participated in charitable fundraising events. In 2022, she appeared in a fundraising concert for Maggie's broadcast nationally on Christmas Eve on Classic FM and presented by Fiona Bruce.^[54] In 2023, she performed at the Grand Finale of the Lord Mayor's Appeal at Guildhall, London.^[55]

In 2020, Zhu launched HarrisonParrott's collaboration with Google Arts & Culture through digital performances of Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst's Der Erlkönig and The Last Rose of Summer and an educational project exploring the composer's life and music.^[56][57]

She is the author of Bows, Strings and Dreams, published in 2023.^[10][58]

In 2020, Zhu and her brother Leo produced a short film that was shortlisted for the CineMagic Young Filmmaker Award.^[5]

Through her roles as Education Ambassador of the London Mozart Players and Patron of the HarrisonParrott Foundation, Zhu has contributed to music education and community outreach initiatives. She has spoken about the importance of broadening access to classical music and introducing younger audiences to the art form.^[59][60][8]

In February 2024, she undertook a week-long residency at the Abu Dhabi Festival, mentoring 30 young musicians from across the United Arab Emirates and culminating in a recital with her students at The British School Al Khubairat.^[61][62]

Zhu has also given masterclasses through the Music for the Future Foundation in Armenia.^[63]

Alongside her performing career, Zhu has pursued formal qualifications in financial services. In 2024, at the age of seventeen, she completed the Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA) from the London Institute of Banking & Finance.^[12][13] She holds associate membership of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), where she was appointed to the institute's Young Professionals Network Committee in 2026.^[12][13]

In 2026, Zhu was admitted to the Freedom of the City of London through the Worshipful Company of International Bankers, the City of London livery company for the financial-services profession.^[1] The same year, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.^[12][13]

Zhu is the founder of Culture Meets Capital, a United Kingdom-based initiative exploring the relationship between culture, capital and civic life. She has said her interest in finance developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when widespread concert cancellations exposed the financial precarity faced by professional musicians.^[12][13]