With a Master of Music degree and a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School in the United States, Zhou is now a piano lecturer at Central Conservatory of Music and a Yangtze River Piano Artist. In 2008, he was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School on a full scholarship. In 2013, he participated in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, winning the first place and seven performance prizes, and signed a contract with the organiser. He won the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition at The Juilliard School twice, in 2013 and 2017.

Zhou is active on the international music scene and has given recitals, ensemble concerts and other types of concerts at concert halls including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, and Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, winning critical acclaim.