Cellist and conductor Aster Zhang has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician at venues across the nation and worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, the Tanglewood Music Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Liszt Academy, and the Vienna Musikverein. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, she was a principal cellist and conducting student in the Princeton University Orchestra and the music director of Opus Chamber Music. At Princeton, she was the winner of the Princeton University Orchestra Concerto Competition. She has previously participated in festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute as principal cellist, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Aster holds an A.B. degree in economics with high honors from Princeton University with certificates in music performance and finance, where she studied cello with Alberto Parrini and conducting with Michael Pratt. She has previously studied with Nayoung Baek, Darrett Adkins, Mihail Jojatu, Eugena Chang, Greg Beaver, and Tracy Sands.