Clara Zhang, 17, is a merit scholar at the Music Institute of Chicago, where she studies the piano with Dr. Matthew Hagle.
Clara has performed extensively at piano concerts, chamber music recitals and music outreach programs. She has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall, Nichols Concert Hall, Chicago Culture Center, Northwestern University Galvin Recital Hall, and Indiana University Auer Hall. Clara was featured in the 2022-2023 Season Young Steinway Concert Series at the Illinois Skokie Library. In February 2024, Clara was invited to perform a solo concert on Chicago’s Classical Radio Station WFMT’s ‘Introductions’ program.
Clara has won prizes and honors at the Illinois State Music Teachers Association Competition, the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, the Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition, the Piano Star International Piano Competition, the London Grand Prize Virtuoso International Piano Competition. As a winner of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival Concerto Competition, Clara has performed as a soloist with the Northeastern Illinois University Symphony Orchestra.
Clara is also an avid chamber musician, with extensive experiences playing with strings, flutes and saxophones.
In her spare time, Clara runs her ‘Music Ambassadors’ program with her musician friends, bringing classical music concerts to the doorsteps of senior communities. Since the start of the program in August 2022, ‘Music Ambassadors’ have brought more than 20 concerts to various senior communities in the greater Chicago area.
Prelude & Fugue in D Minor, WTC II, BWV 875, J.S Bach, 3:20
Sonata No. 62 in Eb Major, Hob. XVI 52, Joseph Haydn, III. Presto, 4:23
