Now a naturalized French citizen living in Paris, France, classical pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei was born in Shanghai, China in 1949. A child prodigy, she grew up in Beijing where she was performing on radio and television at the age of 8 years old. She studied at the National School of Music for gifted children before attending the Central Conservatory of Music. Sent to a labor camp during the Communist Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-Tung, she stayed six years on the Mongolian border and still managed to practice the piano. In 1980, after violinist Isaac Stern visited China, she was allowed to leave her country for the US and studied at the New England Conservatory. Four years later, Zhu Xiao-Mei moved to Paris, France and began a belated concert career around the world. Specializing in a baroque repertoire and the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, she recorded two volumes of The Well-Tempered Keyboard - Books 1 & 2 – as well as The Art of Fugue (2014), and three different interpretations of the Goldberg Variations (1990, 2007, and 2016). Performing at many festivals during her career, she expanded her repertoire and incorporated works by Haydn, Schumann, Beethoven, and Mozart. In 2014, she began teaching at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris. That same year, Zhu Xiao-Mei made her triumphant return to China after 35 years of living in Paris. During her visit there, she received the title of Professor Emeritus at the Beijing Conservatory. That same year, the Ministry of Culture, France honored her with the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. During her career, she also wrote two autobiographies including the best-selling The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations (2007).
