Chinese violist Zhanbo Zheng started his musical education when he took his first violin lesson at the age of 5. At 11, attracted by the warm and beautiful sound of the viola, he decided to become a violist. In 2014, Zhanbo became the first Chinese violist to win the Primrose International Viola Competition. He is also the top prize winner of other major competitions, including the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the Washington International Competition for Strings.

An avid chamber musician, Zhanbo has made appearances in music festivals, including Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Verbier Festival Academy, Caramoor Evnin Rising Stars, and Cleveland ChamberFest. He has been invited to perform at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as a guest artist, and has toured the US several times with Ravinia Steans Music Institute and Musicians from Marlboro, giving performances in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Kaufman Music Center, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

As a soloist, Zhanbo has performed with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, China Broadcasting Performing Arts Orchestra, and EOS Repertoire Orchestra of CCOM. In 2014, he has participated in the recording project “My Concert Hall— The Classical Music Appreciation,” which was proposed by Lanqing Li, the former Premier of the State Council of China.

Zhanbo earned his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory where he studied with Kim Kashkashian, Miriam Fried, and Dominique Eade. He is currently pursuing his Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School under the mentorship of Paul Neubauer.