Clara Qiyun Zhao, is an award-winning soloist, chamber musician, and researcher whose career spans Europe, Asia, and the United States. Zhao is a first-prize winner of the International Knopf Competition, Euterpe International Competition, France National Music Competition, and the Doublestop Foundation Competition, Performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Berliner Philharmonie, and Berlin Konzerthaus etc, She was principal violist of China Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonics, and as associate principal of Germany’s Meiningen National Opera. A specialist in contemporary music, she has collaborated with Garth Knox, IRCAM Paris, the Silkroad Project, and is the founder of the ARCO Project, The Voiceless Project Berlin, and The Future Simulator Productions. A graduate of Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler and Universität der Künste Berlin, she is currently doctorate researcher at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Her current research develops AI music technology in collaboration with Christopher Raphael at IU’s Luddy School of Informatics, creating groundbreaking interdisciplinary performance works that integrate artificial intelligence as a collaborative musician.