Mingen Zhou is an Associate Professor of Violin at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and currently serves as Director of the String Department at the Middle School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She is also Chair of the Violin Committee of the Shanghai Musicians Association and a Council Member of the String Society of the Chinese Musicians Association.
She has received numerous honors, including the 2009 Shanghai Literary and Art Talent Fund Award, the 2009 Shanghai Gardener Award, and the National Wenhua Conservatory Gardener Award in 2012 and 2015. Many of her students have achieved outstanding results in national and international violin competitions, including:
Gold Medal at the 2008 First CCTV National Piano and Violin Competition
First Prize (Group C) at the 2009 Bucharest International Youth Violin Competition (Romania)
Second Prize (Group B) at the 2015 Zhuhai Mozart International Youth Violin Competition
Second Prize (Youth Division) and First Prize (Junior Division) at the
2012 & 2015 National Wenhua Conservatory Youth Violin Competitions
First Prizes in multiple divisions at the
2014, 2015, 2018, and 2020 Hong Kong International Violin Competitions
First and Third Prizes at the 2019 Xiamen International Violin Competition
Top prizes at the 2019 SCC Seoul International Youth Violin Competition
Third and Fifth Prizes (Professional Children’s Division) at the
2020 Qingdao National Violin Concerto Competition
She has published teaching DVDs, including Violin for Beginners and Kayser: 36 Violin Studies as principal lecturer and performer, and has co-authored violin teaching materials such as Playing Four Strings with Your Fingers and Hohmann Violin Method. She has also published academic papers.
Professor Zhou is frequently invited to serve as a juror and masterclass instructor at major violin competitions and festivals in China and abroad, including:
the 21st & 24th Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competitions (Italy, 2014 & 2017)
the First CCOM Shlomo Mintz International Violin Competition (Beijing, 2017)
the 2019 SCC Seoul International Youth Violin Competition
the 2019 University of Minnesota International e-Piano Musikfest
the 2020 National Youth Violin Concerto Competition
the 2020 Asia-Pacific International Online String Festival
She has given solo and chamber music performances at major venues such as the Shanghai Concert Hall, He Luting Concert Hall, Shanghai Symphony Hall, and Suzhou Jinji Lake Concert Hall.
In 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021, she was invited multiple times to perform the classic violin concerto The Butterfly Lovers as soloist with conductors Fan Tao, Xu Zhong, and Hou Runyu, collaborating with the Shanghai Festival Orchestra, Shanghai Oriental Symphony Orchestra, and the East China Normal University Symphony Orchestra, at venues including the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai Nine Trees Future Art Center, and the ECNU Concert Hall, receiving widespread acclaim.