Berklee to Present Wang Leehom Scholarship to Zhengxi Zhang
Berklee College of Music will present a four-year, full-tuition scholarship honoring Chinese-American singer-songwriter Wang Leehom ’99 to Zhengxi Zhang, a promising music producer, this fall. The annual scholarship, which was announced in 2017, was created for a talented and deserving musician from mainland China with a demonstrated potential to make a significant contribution to society through music.
Zhang grew up in Beijing, China, where he began taking piano lessons at age 4. By the third grade, he had developed an interest in Chinese pop music and began transcribing hit songs on his own. He later started to write his own music for piano, and developed an interest in guitar and drums, especially alternative rock music. As a student at the Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University and the prestigious Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, Zhang studied songwriting, recording, and music production.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive the Wang Leehom Scholarship from Berklee College of Music,” said Zhang. “I look forward to joining the college this fall to pursue my passion in music production, and I cannot wait to collaborate alongside the most talented peers and faculty in the music world while there.”
Known as the King of Chinese Pop, Wang Leehom is the bestselling Mandarin-language musician of his generation, with millions of albums sold around the world. His songs combine contemporary and traditional Chinese music with pop, rock, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and classical, often introducing his listeners to these various forms for the first time. He is a recipient of multiple Golden Melody Awards (the Grammys of Taiwanese music) and is a cultural ambassador, bringing Chinese music to audiences around the globe.
Watch Wang Leehom '99 perform "Falling Leaf Returns to Root" with Berklee students at Symphony Hall: