Press

Shuo Zhang is a third-generation erhu virtuoso at the intersection of two lines of Chinese music heritage: on the one hand, his grandfather, Zhang Shao, was a founding father of modern erhu in China, and his father, Zhang Yuming, is a prominent erhu maestro and educator in Singapore. On the other hand, his academic lineage in Chinese music goes back to the late Rulan Chao Pian, one of the first tenured Asian female professors in Harvard history, who specialized in Chinese music theory. Shuo’s mentor, Bell Yung, was a student of Professor Pian at Harvard, and he is the world’s leading expert on Chinese music today.

Shuo has been playing erhu since he was 9. He has performed and taught erhu in China, Singapore, Thailand and the US. In the US, Shuo has lectured and performed Chinese erhu music at University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Phipps Conservatory, and the Columbus Asian Music Festival. In 2019, he co-taught a erhu masterclass with his father Zhang Yuming at Hamlin University in St.Paul, MN. More recently, he performed with pianist Sabrina Svec and Henry Lau, the Chinese Canadian pop icon violinist and Bose Global Ambassador, at the Bose corporate headquarter in Framingham, MA in 2023. As a former researcher at the Music Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Shuo has published internationally and lectured extensively in China on his research in the computational modeling of Chinese music.

An avid Western classical musician, Shuo also co-organizes a classical concert series at Bose, where he regularly performs on the piano.

(Image credit: Maisie O’Brien)

Short bio

Shuo Zhang is a third-generation erhu virtuoso who grew up in a prominent musical family in Beijing, China. As a child, he trained with his grandfather Zhang Shao and his father Zhang Yuming, both of whom are internationally renowned erhu maestros. Since 2002, Shuo has taught and performed erhu in China, Singapore, Thailand, and the US.