Zhu Xiao-Mei occupies a place all her own in today’s musical world. Deliberately keeping her concerts few and far between, she appears in public only to perform especially demanding works, “mountains of the soul” which she judges essential, in interpretations matured over a long period of gestation, taking music to the most varied audiences in places that appeal to her and where she enjoys playing.

She is nowadays the guest of the leading concert halls and the most prestigious festivals, from the Theatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris to the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, from the Festival de La Roque d’Anthéron to the Schleswig Holstein Festival, though she plays with some of the most renowned orchestras like the English Chamber Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia, …and gives concerts everywhere in Europe, in Asia and in America, her career very nearly never took place at all.

The career of Zhu Xiao-Mei, although begun relatively late and without any media coverage, began to take flight, going against all trends and fashions, in an incredible demonstration of the Confucian adage that “life begins at forty”. She gives concerts all over the world, focusing on a repertoire which she limits to a few composers she cherishes above all others: Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann. At its very centre is Bach and his great cycles: The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Partitas and the Goldberg Variations, the work with which her name is particularly associated and which she has given in recital more than two hundred times, as well as The Art of Fugue.

BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier – First Book (BWV 846-869) (Mirare)

BACH : The Well-Tempered Clavier – Second Book (BWV 870-893) (Mirare). Un événement ffff Télérama

BACH : Six Partitas BWV 825-830 (Mirare)

BACH : Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (Mirare)

BEETHOVEN: Sonata op. 111 / SCHUBERT: Sonata D 960. “Last sonatas” (Mirare). Un événement ffff Télérama

HAYDN : Works for piano (Mirare). Un événement ffff Télérama. Choc du Monde de la Musique

MOZART : Works for piano (Mirare)

SCARLATTI: Seventeen sonatas (INA). Un événement ffff Télérama

SCHUBERT: Works for four hands piano. with Alexandre Tharaud (Harmonia Mundi)

SCHUMANN: Davidsbündlertanze op.6, Kinderszenen op. 15 (Mirare)

BACH : Goldberg Variations BWV 988

BACH: The Art of Fugue BWV 1080

Her autobiography La Rivière et son secret was published by Editions Robert Laffont (Paris) in October 2007 and was awarded the Grand Prix des Muses in 2008 (English translation at amazoncrossing: The Secret Piano).

ZHU Xiao-Mei is regularly invited to partipate to the jurys of international piano competitions (Clara Haskil, Long-Thibaud,…). She also teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.

You have to have heard ZHU Xiao-Mei play the Goldberg Variations: it is as straightforward as that! (Le Figaro)

A pianist who goes right to the essence, ignoring fear. ZHU Xiao-Mei is on intimate terms with masterpieces. (Le Monde)

Her interpretation is sober and rigorous — that of genius. (Le Point)