About Hao

​​"Personal, impassioned, courageous, and unostentatiously brilliant” (Musical America), American violinist Hao Zhou rose to international acclaim as both the Grand Laureate and Audience Favorite of the 2019 Concours Musical International de Montréal and a First Prize winner of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. 

An accomplished soloist and chamber musician, Hao made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 12. He made solo appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Downey Symphony Orchestra, and Peninsula Symphony Orchestra alongside conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alexander Shelley, and Thierry Fischer. Hao is a founding member of the award-winning Viano Quartet, in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program from 2024-2027, and has performed worldwide alongside such internationally distinguished artists as Emanuel Ax, Roberto Diaz, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Marc André-Hamelin. 

Hao is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and has been invited to perform at the Kronberg Academy Festival. He was the first recipient of the Frances Rosen Violin Prize at the Colburn Conservatory, where he studied with Martin Beaver and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Hao plays on a 1783 Joseph and Antonio Gagliano violin, on generous loan from the Aftergood Family.