Cellist Anzhe Zuo, born in China, lives in Zurich since 2015. Her talent allows her to look under the surface of the music works and to create new connections. You also experience her passion for vocalising the intensions of the composer, respectfully while still truly personal and artistic.
2022 she won the 1st Prize at the International Music Competition Vienna in the violoncello category, in 2021 the 2nd prize in the VIII Stockholm International Music Competition. 2010 she won the second prize in the National Chinese cello competition the Aegean (Ai-Qin) competition in Beijing. Due to the impressing performance, she was selected as a soloist for the soundtrack of the national film “Chen Shaomei”. 2016 she was invited as a jury member for the international competition “New Stars”.
As a solicit and chamber music player, Anzhe performs regularly throughout Europe and Asia. She has performed on stages such as National Grand Theater in Beijing, Sogar Theater in Zurich or “Gare du Nord für Neue Musik” in Basel, etc. She forms the Amúr Duo with Swedish guitarist Anders Miolin.
At the age of 4 she started to receive piano training. A few years later the cello became her biggest passion and later profession. She studied at Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK after the graduation as a Bachelor at the conservatory in Tianjin. In Zurich she acquired two Master diploma in Cello Performance and in Music Pedagogics with Orfeo Mandozzi. Cellists Thomas Grossenbacher, Kati Raitinen, Yehuda Hanani, Gavriel Lipkind and Yunxin Zhang have been important teachers and mentors.
At music festivals, postgraduate programs and attending masterclasses Anzhe Zuo got additional inspiration from great musicians such as Steven Isserlis, Antonio Meneses, Patrick Demenga, Frans Helmerson, Arto Noras, David Geringas, Natalia Gutman, Wen Sinn Yang, and Yibing Zhu. After the master study she started a Continuing Education in 2019 as a composer with Till Löffler.
Anzhe Zuo regards broadness as equally important as deep understanding of music and specialization. Besides cello playing, she studied Baroque Cello and Viola da Gamba with Martin Zeller. Her piano playing, she improved with Carl Wolf, and New Music playing with Martina Schucan.
Anzhe Zuo develops her sensitivity and creativity also as an abstract painter. She built up her own Synaesthesia system by creating abstract paintings inspired from specific music pieces she had worked on. Her compositions explore the limits of the unique and rich world of sounds only a cello can express (see the picture at left).
Anzhe plays a German cello built 1900 in Dresden by Rudolf Heckel. Occasionally a sponsor lets her play concerts, auditions and competitions on an Italian cello built 1775-80 in Milano by Pietro Testore.