Melodie Zhao
Swiss pianist of Chinese origin, Mélodie Zhao was born in 1994 in Gruyère into a musical family. Extraordinarily gifted with perfect pitch, she began studying piano at 3 years old at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. When she was 9, she entered the Geneva Conservatory under the instruction of Mayumi Balet-Kameda. Since 2007 she studies with Pascal Devoyon, first at the Geneva Superior Conservatory and then at the Berlin University of the Arts. All along her musical studies Mélodie has been coached by her father, formerly one of the topmost violin teachers at the China Central Conservatory of Music, who plays a key role in her evolution.

Between 2009 and 2011, Mélodie has been a Migros Cultural Percent Soloist and was awarded Leenaards Foundation’s 2011 scholarship. At the age of 14, she gained her Bachelor’s Degree with the highest honours, also receiving the François Dumont Prize for the best interpretation of a Beethoven sonata. At 16, she was awarded her Master Soloist Diploma with distinction, as well as the Georges Filipinetti and Carola Pajonk prizes for the musician with the highest and most refined musical sensitivity.

Accustomed to the stage since she was 6 years old, she gave her first solo recital in Geneva as well as her debut performance as a soloist with an orchestra when she was 10. Since then, she has performed regularly with ensembles such as the Suisse Romande Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Schweiz, Geneva Symphony Orchestra, Chinese National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Opera, Russian Symphony Orchestra of Belgorod…

She plays regularly at festivals and concert series such as the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Zermatt Festival, Zurich Festival, Migros-Classics Tour, Festival Chopin Valldemossa, Merano Music Weeks, Bratislava Music Festival, Davos Festival…

At the age of 13, Mélodie Zhao recorded Chopin’s 24 Etudes and at the age of 16, she extended her discography with a recording of Liszt’s 12 Transcendental Studies under the Swiss label Claves Records. In 2014 she released the complete Beethoven piano Sonatas and in 2015 both piano concertos of Tchaikovsky with the Suisse Romande Orchestra under Michail Jurowski also by Claves.

In April 2010, at the Festival of Jinan (China), Mélodie Zhao played to great acclaim a work of her own composition “Sources”, a suite in the form of three tableaux for solo piano. It received a standing ovation when it was premiered in Europe and her achievement has featured on numerous radio and television programmes. Since then, she has been involved in various composition projects for orchestras, sometimes on order. In 2015, she created her first symphonic piece “Ouverture Classique”. She developed writing and orchestration with Prof. Jean-Claude Schlaepfer in Geneva and Nicolas Bacri in Paris and Brussels. Since 2013, Mélodie has regularly conducted symphonic formations. She is still studying direction with Misha Damev in Zurich and Yi Zhang in Beijing. She has been invited by the Rudra Béjart dance workshop in Lausanne to conduct a ballet in April 2016.