MUSIC

DaXun Zhang, double bass and Tomoko Kashiwagi, collaborative piano. Details at www.ChinesePerformingArts.net. Program include works by Bach, Chen Gang, Bottesini,Vieuxtemps, and Chinese Traditional classics. The Washington Post wrote: “If the bass is finally to produce a headliner, the instrument can have no better champion” Double bassist DAXUN ZHANG, who has made his mark as a soloist on this instrument won an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2007, only the second double bassist in the history of this prestigious award. He was the first double bass player to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He also won the La Jolla Music Society Prize, the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize, and The Fergus Prize. He was the first double bassist ever to win First Prize in the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra competition 2003, leading to a performance with the Orchestra and conductor Osmo Vanska. He was the youngest artist ever to win the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. He also received the Grand Prize of the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition.

As concerto soloist, Mr. Zhang has appeared with orchestras including the Orange County Pacific, the Edmonton, the Monroe, the Grand Rapids, the Triangle Chamber, and the Cedar Rapids Orchestra. As a soloist, he has given recitals at Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts at Jordan Hall Boston, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, the Maple Ridge Music Society Canada, the Loyola University New Orleans, the Vancouver Recital Society, the Kravis Center, University of Georgia, Missouri State University, and the Chinese Embassy Series in Washington, DC. As chamber musician he performed at the La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, the Strings in the Mountains Music Festival, and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival. In 2006, he performed Bizet’s Carmen Fantasy at Lincoln Center with Keith Lockhart conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. In 2008-2009, he was a resident at Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two.

Mr. Zhang has performed extensively with the Silk Road Project, including concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and in Japan and California. He recorded the soundtrack to a 10-part documentary series with Yo-Yo Ma, which aired in Japan on NHK Television. The CD was released as “Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon” on Sony Classical. He also joined with fellow Silk Road musician pipa player Yang Wei and pianist Tomoko Kashiwagi to form the innovative chamber ensemble Qi Lin.

DaXun Zhang came from a family of bassists in Harbin, China, playing bass since age nine. He studied at Beijing Central Conservatory and received his Bachelor of Music from Indiana University with Lawrence Hurst. He was on the faculty of Northwestern University and is currently a Professor of Double Bass at the University of Texas at Austin. (2012)