XIAODAN HELEN ZHENG

   Born to a Chinese family of musicians, Xiaodan received cello lessons from her father at age five. Her family moved to Russia when she was nine, and in the same year, Xiaodan had her solo debut with the Ulan-Ude Philharmonic. She was soon accepted to the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory to continue her studies in the foreign land.
   In 1997, Xiaodan’s family immigrated to the United States, at which time she received a full scholarship to study with André Emelianoff at the Juilliard School. Now,
a recent graduate from the studio of Ron Leonard at the University of Southern California, Xiaodan has collaborated in concerts with Itzhak Perlman, soloed under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman and performed with Yo-Yo Ma.
   As an orchestral musician, Xiaodan has been a member of the American Youth Symphony, YMF Debut Orchestra, New York String Orchestra Seminar, UBS Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), USC Thornton Symphony and USC Chamber Orchestra as principal cellist.
   Since winning her first job in 2006 with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Xiaodan has gone on to join the New West Symphony, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, and the Intimate Opera Company (L.A.).
   Xiaodan is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Russian and English. When she’s not performing, she enjoys taking long walks on the beach. She also has three Beta fish: Burak- 3, Jade-2, and Ruby-2 (that's in human years), plays ping pong and ballroom dances, and loves to take vacations anywhere they don't charge her an extra plane ticket for her cello.
   She’s currently in training to launch her second career as a Massage Therapist specializing in musicians’ therapy.