Born in Shanghai in 1984, the violinist Howard Zhang moved to Los Angeles in 1989. He began violin lessons with his father at the age of three and at the age of twelve met Itzhak Perlman, with whom he was able to study in two summer programmes and subsequently at the Juilliard Pre-College. His principal teachers at the Juilliard School were Dorothy Delay and Hyo Kang, and he has also had a long working relationship with Abram Shtern.

Howard Zhang won early success when, at the age of nine, he played Bruch’s Concerto in G minor with the Redlands Symphony in the United States. In 1993 he won first prize in the American String Teachers Association Competition, and, through the Stradivarius Society of Chicago and the violinist Midori, was honoured with the loan of a three-quarter size Gagliano violin, made in 1760. In 2001 he won first prize in the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and has received the Governor of New Jersey’s award for his outstanding achievements in the arts. In 1994 he gave a recital for the Stradivarius Society in Chicago and since then has appeared in recitals and as a soloist with orchestras throughout the Americas, China and Europe, to the highest critical praise.