His successes are remarkable. In addition to numerous First Prize awards at the Jugend musiziert competition, he won First Prize at the 13th International Georg Philipp Telemann Competition in Poznan, Poland in 2016 with distinction for the best interpretation of a Fantasy for violin solo by Georg Philipp Telemann. In 2016, he also received the Bruno Frey Music Prize awarded by the Bruno Frey Foundation, Ochsenhausen.
In 2017, he was awarded First Prize at the 17th International Violin Competition in Kloster Schöntal, including a special prize for the best interpretation of a virtuoso piece and the Reinhold-Würth-Förderpreis. Recent competition successes include First Prize at the 34th International Violin Competition Valsesia Musica (2018), First Prize at the Zhuhai Mozart Competition (2019) and First Prize at the 7th International Chamber Music Competition Bydgoszcz (2020) with his duo partner, Adam Tomaszewski.
In May 2021, he won Second Prize at the Menuhin Competition in Richmond, Virginia, as well as the Mozart Prize and the European Community EMCY Award for his outstanding performance at the Menuhin Competition.
Simon Zhu made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2015 and has since performed there several times as a soloist with orchestra. He was a guest at the International Young Masters Violin Festival on Lake Constance and is a scholarship holder of the Menuhin Festival & Academy. He has given concerts in Germany, England, France, Belgium, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Korea, and China, performing with renowned orchestras including the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Salzburg Chamber Soloists.
Simon is a scholarship holder at the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein and takes part in intensive music weeks and activities of the Academy. He has been a scholarship recipient of the German Music Foundation since 2016. He is an academist at the Hope Music Academy and at the Walter Stauffer Academy Cremona, where he studies with Professor Salvatore Accardo.
Since 2020, he has performed on a fine old Montagnana violin, generously loaned by the Florian Leonhard Fellowship.