Zhao Taisheng

Principal Sanxian of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Zhao joined the HKCO in 2005 and has served as Principal Sanxian since 2017. Zhao is also a member of the Chinese Musicians’ Association and the China Nationalities Orchestra Society, and a committee member of the Central Conservatory of Music Alumni Association (Hong Kong). He graduated from the Conservatory where he trained in sanxian under Professor Xiao Jiansheng, Wang Zhenxian and Tan Longjian at the Traditional Instruments Department. In his second year at the Conservatory, he won the Dunhuang Class One Award at the First International Jiangnan Wind and String Competition, a Class One Performance Award with A Festive Procession and another Class One Award for the new work Eulogy of the South. In 1996, his premiere of Demon from Heaven won an Outstanding Performance Award at the 3rd All China Folk Music Instrumental Music Showcase, and he was honoured by the Government of the Beijing Municipality for his meritorious achievements in culture. He was named one of the ‘Ten Best Performers of Beijing’ in 1998.

Zhao joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 2005 as a sanxian musician. In 2013, 14 and 15, when he was on tour to Russia, Singapore and Estonia, his self-accompanied singing performance of Song of the Black Earth on the sanxian won standing ovations from the house. Back home in Shanghai, Dalian and Wuhan, this performance also brought the house down. In the 2018 concert ‘Heart for Home - Music that Evokes Nostalgia’, Zhao performed The Abacus Rondo using the Chinese abacus as musical instrument. His vivid portrayal of a Chinese merchant’s spectrum of moods made it the most popular item on the programme.

Since 2018, Zhao has been invited to give talks on sanxian by the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Music School of Shanxi University, Shaanxi Artistic Vocational College and other art colleges, receiving great applause. Since 2020, in the time of pandemic, Zhao has invited 11 composers around the world to compose works for sanxian to encourage the society to fight against the pandemic with the power of music. Zhao is one of the host of the trans-media programme A Musical Feast by HKCO’s ‘Five’.