We hear from Tristan Zhu, a senior at Walter Payton College Prep and the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. He joins pianist Milana Pavchinskaya as he plays music of Bach, Chaminade, Sibelius, and DBR.
Tristan Zhu is a scholarship fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians, where he studies under Almita Vamos and Davis King.
An avid chamber musician, his groups have won the Silver Medal at the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Junior Competition, Gold Medal and Best Haydn Performance at the 2023 Saint Paul String Quartet Junior Competition, Grand Prize and String/Piano Division Prize at the 2024 Barnett Chamber Music Competition, Grand Prize and String/Piano Division Prize at the 2025 MYA Chicago National Chamber Music Competition, and First Prize at the 2025 Rembrandt Chamber Musicians High School Chamber Music Competition.
As a soloist, Tristan was a winner of the 2025 YoungArts National Competition in Classical Music/Violin, and the winner of the 2024 MTNA Illinois State and East Central Division Senior String Competition, advancing to the MTNA National Finals in Mar’25. In 2023, he won the 1st prizes at the DePaul Concerto Festival, DuPage Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Auditions and West Suburban Symphony’s Solo Contest. As an orchestral musician, Tristan performed with the Grammy-nominated CYSO Symphony Orchestra as Principal Second Violinist for two years.
Aside from music, he is a varsity runner at Walter Payton College Prep, where as captain he led the team to 3rd place at the 2023 Illinois State Cross Country Finals. He is also the founder of the SparkX Initiative, a student-led STEM program, and is currently working on a Nuclear Fusion Reactor research project.
Tristan has appeared on Introductions as a chamber musician in August 2021; in August 2023; and in November 2024. A previous performance of his of DBR’s Filter was first broadcast in February 2024.