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Born from a musical family, Alvin has swept audiences across the world. His artistry has taken him to various halls around the world from New York's Steinway Hall, Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall, Australia's Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Park's Performing Arts Center, Pittsburgh's Convention Center, Canada's Montreal Palais du Congress (Convention Center) and Venues in Beijing, Shanghai, Taicang, Suzhou. A current student of Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky at the Juilliard School, Alvin is an avid musician and a sensitive artist. Since youth, He began lessons with his mother at the age of four and studied piano with Yeeha Chiu and Marylene Dosse. Alvin has had master classes with Gary Graffman, Emanuel Ax, Lang Lang, Misha Dichter, Shikun Liu, and David Allen Wehr.
As a young pianist, he has already played with numerous orchestras. In June 2006, Alvin performed the piano concertos, Rhapsody in Blue, Mendelssohn's G minor Concerto 3rd movement, and the Chinese Piano Concerto "Yellow River" 2nd movement for the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center Grand Opening Concert to open for Lang Lang's concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
In 2006, with the Nittany Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Butler County Symphony Orchestra, Alvin played the Mendelssohn Concerto in G minor.
In September of 2007, Alvin Zhu was selected for "From the Top" as Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist and received a scholarship of $10,000, and the chance to performed Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
In 2008, Alvin performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for the 50th Anniversary of Pittsburgh McKeesport Symphony Orchestra. Subsequently, Alvin won the 2008 Pittsburgh Civic Symphony Orchestra Solo Competition and performed Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the Pittsburgh Civic Symphony Orchestra in March 2009.
In 2009, Alvin was officially the first American pianist to be inducted into The Young Steinway Artists Roster and has the honor of representing Steinway at each of his performance venues.
In 2010, Alvin took First Place in The Tuesday Musical Club Scholarship Competition and received 10,000 scholaship towards 2012. He also won the PPTA Scholarship Competition and total received 8,000.
On Oct. 15, 2010, Alvin performed Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the McGill Symphony Orchestra for International Women's Forum Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony in Montreal. He received a standing ovation from an international audience of over 1300 leaders from over 70 nations.
In Nov. 5, 2011, Alvin performed Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto with The Pittsburgh Butler County Symphony Orchestra. The concert review from Butler Eagle new paper wrote, " Alvin Zhu rocked the house with his dazzling performance.....Zhu played with amazing skill, making the challenging work seem easy."
Alvin has won numerous piano competitions including 1st place in the Aikens-Cadman Competition, Pittsburgh Concert Society Young Artist Audition, the Ann Keller Young Soloist Competition, and the PPTA Primary, Elementary, and Junior Piano Competitions. He also was the winner of the McKeesport Young Artist Competition, the Pittsburgh Young Artist Competition, the PPTA Music Composition Competition, and the Reflections Program four times in the state level and twice in the national level. Alvin has participated in the Aspen Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West Music.
In 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009, the Pittsburgh Classical Music Station WQED broadcasted his live performances of Chopin's "Revolutionary Etude", Chopin's Opus 10 No. 1 Etude, Debussy's "Clair de Lune", Gershwin's Prelude No. 3. Beethoven's Sonata Op. 2, No.3, fourth movement, Pathetique Sonata, Chopin Sonata Op.58 1st and 2nd movements, Chopin Polonaise Op.53 and Chopin Mazurkas Op.17, No. 4.
Alvin is a multi-talented person; he also conducts, composes, plays violin, viola, drum set, and guitar. Alvin has composed five songs, all of which include original lyrics, music, orchestration, and vocals. His two songs, "Do you love me too" and " Lovely Star" received an Honorable Mention Award in the 16th Billboard World Song Contest. His other two songs, " Let Me try" and "Starlight" won the Runner Up of 2008 Song of the Year Song and Lyric Competition. Song of the Year receives entries from all over world and only the top entries achieve Runner Up status.
His recent compositions have been geared towards piano repertoire, his Sonata in C Major, and his Valse Fantasie. His Sonata received First Prize in the Freshmen L&M Composition Contest at Juilliard in 2009.
His hobbies aside from music are socializing, ping pong, and billiards.
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