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Accomplished instrumentalist Jocelyn Zhang has performed with orchestras and festivals in Canada and around the world, developing into an international musician.
Two instruments define Jocelyn Zhang’s career: the concert flute and the piccolo. The first reflects vibrato technique and the ability to control breathing for long sections. The second can be more difficult with a high pitch that stretches above the sounds of the ensemble orchestra, leaving little room for mistakes.
Zhang is a master of both, often playing at festivals and in orchestras. A Canadian flutist and piccoloist, she trained in Bloomington and Cincinnati to later perform in the US, Italy, Germany, and her home country of Canada.
In 2024, she was selected as one of two flutists for the Brott Music Festival in Hamilton, Ontario. The summer festival has been recognized for gathering new and upcoming musicians at the professional level in the Canadian music circuit.
Later in October of the same year, she took first place in the Piccolo Concerto Competition at the University of Cincinnati. At the competition, she performed Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in C Major as a soloist with the CCM Concert Orchestra.
Rising to this level has been an intense journey for Zhang, filled with competition and striving for excellence. It has been this struggle that has developed her into a well-traveled musician and a blossoming global performer.
Developing a Global Voice
One notable facet of Zhang’s playing is the consistency of the sound she is capable of expressing. She built that consistency through study, first at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and then at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Zhang received instruction from Randolph Bowman of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Demarre McGill of the Seattle Symphony. Their names have also graced rooms she has since found herself playing in: a thousand-seat outdoor amphitheater in upstate New York, a historic auditorium in the Italian Dolomites, and a concert hall in Hamilton, Ontario.
In 2016, still just a student in Calgary, Zhang performed on Breakfast Television Calgary as part of a segment covering the Calgary Performing Arts Festival. She was also the only woodwind player selected for the Stars of the Festival concert at the Bella Concert Hall that same year. The showcase was reserved for standout musicians across all disciplines, though woodwinds previously have not found a place on the list. Zhang, however, found a home on it with her skill.
A Full Schedule and World Travel
Only a year after the Stars of the Festival Concert, she was touring Germany with the Calgary Youth Orchestra. After that came Indiana, Cincinnati, and Italy, where she performed Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Auditorium Intercomunale Primiero.
The venue is tucked into the Dolomites, where the setting is as much part of the experience as the music. Each transition required an audition, with no guarantee of success, but Zhang found it once more.
Adding to her repertoire, in the summer of 2023, Zhang performed at the Chautauqua Music Festival Orchestra in New York. At the festival, she played Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi at the Chautauqua Amphitheater.
Her repertoire across these years has stretched well past the concert hall. At Indiana University, she played Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. In Italy, Strauss. At Chautauqua, Puccini. In Canada, Rossini. Four composers, four very different orchestral textures, all requiring the same instrument to disappear into someone else’s story for a few hours at a time.
A Worldly Musician
In April of 2025, Zhang performed at the Central Ohio Flute Association Showcase in Columbus, and in May, she performed for the Cincinnati Flute Society. She advanced to the semifinals in the second flute and piccolo audition for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra in 2026. The competition attracts players with established orchestral experience, making it a process for those like Zhang who push for greatness.
Over the years, Zhang has demonstrated a voracious hunger for performance since her time as a student. Her drive and commitment to developing her skills have earned her repeated recognition with performances on impactful stages and with important organizations.
She has grown into a world traveler and a global musician with performances across continents, stages, and instruments.
The post Jocelyn Zhang Is Spreading the Music of Woodwinds Across the World appeared first on Under30CEO.
