Forbidden City Concert Hall

"It's unnecessary to pay a big sum of money for a 'luxury' concert. Some people can enjoy that and can afford it, but ordinary people also need normal concerts too," she says and notes the reasonable ticket price of less than 100 yuan ($15.80) for Opening Door of the Arts.

This time at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, Zhang will play Festival has something for everyone
Saint-Saens' The Swan, Bach's Little Suite No 2 Aria, Tchaikovsky's Nocturne, and Beethoven's Seven Variation based on Mozart's Magic Flute.

Zhang also invites her friend and pianist Ren Shuman to play some pieces, and there will also be a host to introduce every piece.

Born to a cellist mother and a folk musician father in Beijing, in 1972, Zhang started to learn cello at almost 7. It was not an early age like today's prodigies, but the "culture revolution" (1966-76) had just ended and music had returned to the family, which could afford a small-sized cello.

The 21-year-old Zhang was champion at the national cello competition in 1993 and graduated from Central Conservatory of Music in 1995. Then she joined National Symphony of China and soon rose to become one of the best cellists of her generation, in the country.

In 1999, she went to University of Southern California to further her studies with renowned woman cellist Eleonore Schoenfeld (1920-2007) and received a master's degree there. Between 2001 and 2004, she served as the principal cellist at the La Sierra University Symphony Orchestra at the Riverside, in the US. After that, she toured widely in US and Europe as a soloist.

Zhang returned to the National Symphony of China in 2007 and formed a string quartet with three other players from the orchestra to give regular chamber concerts throughout China.