About this Artist

The young Chinese mezzo-soprano HUILING ZHU was born in Shanghai. After graduating from the middle school affiliated with Shanghai Conservatory of Music under Bian Jingzu, she started her vocal studies in Europe. She studied at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg under Ingrid Kremling and there she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in lieder, oratorio, and opera performance with a mention of “outstanding.” In 2011, she earned her PhD in opera and vocal performance at the Hochschule für Musik Stuttgart under Dunja Vejzovic. 

Her opera repertoire includes the title role in Carmen, Charlotte in Werther, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Rheintochter in Das Rheingold, as well as German and Austrian operettas. Besides opera, Zhu is also an outstanding concert singer. She gives lieder recitals in Germany, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, U.K., and the U.S.

She made her opera debut in China in 2013, as Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann produced by NCPA Beijing. She appeared in the 2012/13 season of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, singing Maddalena in Rigoletto. In the 2014/15 season, she was a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the NCPA Orchestra and collaborated with Maestro Zhang Yi and the National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde conducted by Zhang Yi. She has sang Bersi in Andrea Chenier in a NCPA production. In April 2017, she made a triumphant debut as Carmen with Yang Yang and China National Opera.

Zhu is a winner of the Elisa-Meyer Vocal Competition and Timmendorfer Strand Music Festival Singing Competition in Germany, and the Nagasaki Music Competition in Japan. Since 2008, Huiling Zhu is the artistic director of the charitable foundation Stiftung Chinesische Nachwuchskünstler e.V. Hamburg (Germany).