University of Texas at Austin

• State: Texas
• State School (public)
• School Website
• 1986 ISB Convention Host

DaXun Zhang, bass faculty

• Contrabass Conversations Interview
• Email DaXun
• DaXun’s Website

General Statistics

• • US News Ranking: #56 (tie) in National Universities
  • US News Overall Score (out of 100): 60
  • In-State Tuition & Fees 2016-17: $9,806
  • Out-of-State Tuition & Fees 2016-17: $34,676
  • Room & Board 2016-17: $11,456
  • Total Enrollment: 50,950
  • Acceptance Rate (from 2015): 39%
  • Student – Faculty Ratio: 18:1
  • 4 year graduation rate: 52%
  • % of undergrads receiving Financial aid: 42%
  • Average Financial Aid: $9,088

What Alumni Are Doing

• Jessica Valls – teacher, improvising artist, founder of Austin Bass Festival
  • Contrabass Conversations Interview
• Paul Determan – founder of TalkBass.com

About The Bass Faculty

“If the bass is finally to produce a headliner, the instrument can have no better champion than Zhang,” wrote The Washington Post of double bassist DaXun Zhang, who has indeed made his mark as a soloist on this unusual instrument

In April 2007, Mr. Zhang won an Avery Fisher Career Grant, only the second double bassist in the history of this prestigious award. He is the first double bass player to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and start a career under the auspices of Young Concert Artists. He made his New York debut sponsored by the Claire Tow Prize and his Washington, DC debut as a co-presentation with Washington Performing Arts Society. He also won the La Jolla Music Society Prize, the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize, and The Fergus Prize. In April 2006, Mr. Zhang performed his arrangement of Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy in at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall with Keith Lockhart conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Mr. Zhang was the first double bassist ever to win first prize in the 2003 WAMSO Competition, leading to a performance with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vanska, conducting. In 2001, Mr. Zhang was the youngest artist ever to win the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. He has also received the Grand Prize of the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition.

Mr. Zhang has performed extensively with the Silk Road Project, including concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall, and in Japan and California. He recorded the soundtrack to a 10-part documentary series with the Silk Road Project and its Artistic Director, Yo-Yo Ma, which aired in Japan on NHK Television. The CD was released as “Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon” on Sony Classical.

As concerto soloist, Mr. Zhang has appeared with prominent orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Tokyo Symphony, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony, etc. He has given hundreds of recitals in US, Canada, Panama, Japan, Korea and China. As a chamber musician, Mr. Zhang has appeared in music festivals such as the La Jolla Summer Fest, Music@Menlo (link sends e-mail), Strings in Mountains and Vancouver Summer Combustion, he was also a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two.

DaXun Zhang comes from a family of bassists in Harbin, China. He has been playing the instrument since the age of nine, and studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing beginning at the age of eleven. He continued his studies in the U.S. at the Interlochen Arts Academy and received his Artist Diploma at the Indiana University School of Music, where he worked with Lawrence Hurst. He has served on the faculty of Northwestern University and is Associate Professor of Double Bass at the University of Texas at Austin.