This recognises the 19-year-old violinist’s work in international concert performance, financial services and the cultural life of the City of London
British violinist Leia Zhu, 19, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (RSA). It comes soon after the violinist founded Cultural Meets Capital, which explores the relationship between culture, capital and civic life in the UK.
She was recently awarded the Freedom of the City of London through the Worshipful Company of International Bankers, and was appointed to the Young Professionals Network Committee of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Zhu said about the RSA Fellowship:
’It is a real honour to join an institution with such a long civic and intellectual history. The RSA has, for more than 270 years, explored how culture, commerce and public life shape one another. These questions sit at the centre of my own work, as a musician and in the institutions we are now building in London.
’I look forward to contributing to the Fellowship community.’
As a soloist, Zhu has performed with ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Mozart Players, and in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Zurich Tonhalle, and others.
She received the 2025 Opus Klassik Young Talent of the Year award and serves as education ambassador for the London Mozart Players and Patron of the HarrisonParrott Foundation.
Zhu holds a Diploma for Financial Advisers (DipFA, LIBF) and Associate Membership of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).
The RSA was founded in 1754 when a group of creative reformers met in a Covent Garden coffee house and decided to build an institution – initially known as the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce – that rewarded ideas over status and used creativity to serve the common good. It examines how the artistic, commercial and civic life of a country can be integrated.
Zhu joins a global RSA Fellowship of approximately 32,000 people and is believed to be among the youngest concert musicians in the UK currently to hold the distinction. Other notable RSA fellows include Sir David Attenborough and Dame Judi Dench.
No comments yet