Zhi-Jong Wang made her solo debut at the age of 14 with the Orchestre National de Lille under Sir Yehudi Menuhin in France. Since then, she has performed with prestigious orchestras such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Turku Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Berliner Symphoniker (at the Berlin Philharmonie), Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony, and several leading Chinese orchestras, including those in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. Her collaborations include some of the most distinguished musicians, such as Yehudi Menuhin, Yuri Temirkanov, Myung-Whun Chung, Gidon Kremer, Lynn Harrell, Matthias Bamert, Okko Kamu, John Storgårds, Lior Shambadal, Christian Arming, Muhai Tang, and many others. Notably, she became the first Chinese artist to perform a solo recital at the Lucerne Festival.
A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Zhi-Jong has performed works by composers including Gubaidulina, Lutosławski, Schnittke, and Ligeti, among others. In recent seasons, she premiered Ana Sokolovic’s Commedia dell’arte III and Nikolai Badinski’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
Her interest in ‘play-conducting’ emerged following her debut performance with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, where she led Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 from the violin. Since then, she has combined performing and conducting in a diverse range of works, including Vivaldi/Piazzolla’s Four Seasons and several Mozart violin concertos.
In 2020, Zhi-Jong founded Ensemble Epoch, a project that has toured major cities across China and garnered widespread acclaim. As its artistic director, she shapes the ensemble’s vision and performs both as a soloist and conductor. The ensemble seeks to bring music to broader audiences through innovative interpretations of works from various eras and the exploration of new forms of ensemble performance.
Zhi-Jong is a laureate of numerous prestigious competitions. She won First Prize at the 1998 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, followed by the First Prize at the China National Violin Competition, where she was the youngest ever winner. Her competition successes continued with top prizes at the Sibelius, Lipizer, and Tchaikovsky Violin Competitions, attracting international attention. Critics have praised her “exquisite skill and rich expressive power,” and noted her versatility as one of “the most accomplished violinists of our generation.”
Her discography includes a highly acclaimed recording of the Sibelius and Stravinsky violin concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Thomas Sanderling, nominated for an ICMA award. Her second album features Chinese violin concertos, including Butterfly Lovers by He Zhanhao/Chen Gang and Shen Ye’s Violin Concerto, performed with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Yang Yang. Zhi-Jong and Ensemble Epoch will be featured in an upcoming release.
A graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she studied with the renowned Professor Lina Yu, Zhi-Jong furthered her studies with Kolja Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, also serving as Blacher’s assistant.