The four-year, full-tuition scholarship honoring Chinese-American singer-songwriter Wang Leehom ’99 will be presented to Zhengxi Zhang this fall.
Aspiring music producer Zhengxi is the 2019 recipient of the Wang Leehom Scholarship to Berklee College of Music 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.
Zhengxi grew up in Beijing, 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 Idyllwild Arts Academy, Zhengxi studied songwriting, recording, and music production.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive the Wang Leehom Scholarship from Berklee College of Music,” said Zhengxi. “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, 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.