Daxun ZHANG

DaXun Zhang was born into a musical family in Harbin, China: he grew up listening to his grandfather sing Peking opera, his mother taught him to play the piano as a child, and when he was 9, he joined eight family members, including his father, uncles, and cousins, in taking up the double bass. His family lived in the dormitory of the Heilongjiang Provincial Opera and Dance Theater, where he was immersed in all forms of music. DaXun Zhang's musician friends humorously refer to him as a "double bass addict."

After studying with his father as a child, he continued his studies at the middle school affiliated with the Central Conservatory of Music in China and Indiana University in the United States before becoming the first double bass player to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 2004, former Juilliard cellist Yo-Yo Ma invited DaXun to join the Silk Road Ensemble, of which he said: “Music is a language. Talking to yourself is a very lonely thing to do. Collaboration is a necessary skill for a musician, it is much more fun to communicate with others and exchange musical ideas with each other. This kind of communication transcends all languages and cultures, has no barriers and is truly the greatest charm of music.”

DaXun teaches double bass in the undergraduate and graduate programs at Tianjin Juilliard.