About this Artist
Dr. Weicheng Zhao is the first Chinese native to win top prizes in international and U.S. national pipe organ competitions, earning five major prizes and receiving the Audience Prize each time. He has been a featured recitalist at the American Guild of Organists’ national and regional conventions. As an ensemble player, he has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Diego Symphony under conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and others.
In addition to his work on the pipe organ, Dr. Zhao is acclaimed as a visionary performer of the Electone Organ — a modern electronic organ which features orchestral as well as newly developed electronic and synthesized sounds. In 2007, he made history as the first Chinese to win the Yamaha International Electronic Organ Competition in its 43-year history, the world’s most prestigious event of its kind.
As an arranger, Dr. Zhao has created more than 60 works, from solo pieces to concertos and chamber music. In addition, his pop music arrangements for piano were published in 15 volumes by Publishing House of the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing. His commissioned work by the American Guild of Organists, a transcription of Stravinsky's Fire Bird for three organists (six hands, six feet, one bench), premiered at the 2019 American Guild of Organists West Regional Convention, has captivated audiences and colleagues and was recognized as a landmark work in the organ world.
Currently, Dr. Zhao is the Director of Music and Organist-Choirmaster at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California where he conducts two 45-voice adult choirs. He is also a faculty member and the College Organist at Pomona College. In 2018, he was awarded his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music, where he studied with Cherry Rhodes, following earlier studies in China with Baoqiang Lu and Jiyong Gao.