Zhu started to learn the piano and violin at the age of four, and completed a Doctoral degree in piano performance at The Juilliard School in New York under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin. He is on the faculty of The Tianjin Juilliard School since 2019, and is a Steinway Artist and a visiting scholar at the Central Conservatory of Music. Zhu has performed with orchestras around the world, appearing at Alice Tully Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, Sydney Opera House and Beijing Concert Hall. He holds top prizes in international and national competitions and has been a jury member of piano competitions like the Franz Liszt International Youth Piano Competition, VIVACE International Piano Competition Paris, among others.

Zhu has been a guest lecturer at The Juilliard School in New York, Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and Soochow University in Taiwan, and has given masterclasses at Yale University, Texas State University etc. He is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and has researched the musical contributions of his paternal grandfather Gongyi Zhu, a piano pedagogue whose influence in China is still widely felt today.