Chinese flutist Wei Zhao enjoys a rich musical life. As a soloist, she has won two nation wide professional level Soloist competitions in China, and participated in the Prague Spring International Music Festival competition; and as chamber musician, she has won many significant competitions with her woodwind quintet.
As principal flute in professional orchestras, Wei has played a wide repertoire with orchestras, performed with the Juilliard Conservatory of Music Youth Orchestra; with luminaries such as Daniel Barenboim, Seiji Ozawa in Central Conservatory Of Music’s Youth Orchestra; performed with the National Ballet of Moscow during the ballet season’s concert; with the China Film Philharmonic played all movie season’s concert; performed in Peking University with the Peking Sinfonietta; many times performed with the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra during the symphony and opera seasons. In 2008, Wei performed an orchestra piece by Tan Dun, during the Olympic time all over China; In 2013, performed with Accent Symphony for Lang Lang’s concert; In 2016, she performed with Edison Ruiz, the youngest bass player in the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2018, performed with Placido Domingo for his own concert, and others.
Wei Zhao has participated in masterclasses with many flutists from all over the world, including Ransom Wilson, Linda Toote, Laura McGee, Emmanuel Pahud, Peter Lukas-Graf, Maxence larrieu, Shigenori Kudo, Philippe Bernold, Benoit Fromanger, Paul Edmund-Davis, Emily Beyond, and many others, all of which gave her great praise. She performs regularly at Berklee College of Music, Pickman Concert Hall, Middlesex Community College, UMass Lowell, and many venues with Alea III (NEC), Lowell Chamber Orchestra, Music at Eden’s Edge, Mestrowest Opera, Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Equilibrium Concert Series, UMass Lowell, so on. 2016 Wei successfully performed her own recital in Pickman Hall of Longy Music School.
In 2017, she founded “Duo Zonda,” of which she is currently a member, after debuting at the Charlotte New Music Festival. Wei and Duo Zonda continue to lecture, perform, and record for all the composers every year since then, even during the time of Covid-19. During fall 2020, Duo Zonda was in residence at University of California-Riverside, where they conducted a number of sessions with composition students, and culminating in the recording of 8 pieces for the young composers, some of them graduating students who used these recordings to apply to their Master Degrees. On 2021, Duo Zonda was invited to Berklee School of Music to lecture on the specifics of the flute family, and performed a dozen miniature works by composition students.
Wei Zhao has been teaching flute and woodwind techniques over 14 years. She has her own studio since 2017, and currently is on the faculty of the Newton Chinese Language School, and Discover Melody online courses. She has taught at the Kennedy Longfellow School in Cambridge, MA, and the Chinese Musicians Association, for which organization she has recorded instructional videos on the performance of important flute masterworks. She also taught at the British School of Beijing for 2 years, and at Beijing’s No. 2 High School for 5 years. She has led her students to successfully win many different auditions of solo, chamber music and orchestra playing: as All State in MA; Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra; New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School: as Baroque Ensemble, Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Youth Symphony Orchestra, Senior Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble (MYWE), and Youth Repertory Orchestra; Wei’s students got much higher record from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in the different levels; also, some of Wei’s students went to attend University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Wei helped them prepare their flute solo recitals.
Wei Zhao has two Flute Performance Master Degrees. One with full scholarship from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, where she studied with famous flute professor, educator Yongxin Wang. She earned her second Master's Degree in flute performance from the Longy School of Music at Bard College, with flute professor Marco Granados. She is thankful to both professors that taught her.