George Gao

Career Trajectory

Beginning erhu studies at six and winning China's premier national competition at eighteen, George Gao transitioned from Shanghai's conservatory tradition to become North America's pioneering erhu ambassador, establishing the instrument's first formal pedagogy at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. His compositions—particularly the Erhu Capriccio series—elevated the erhu from folk tradition to contemporary classical canon, with works adopted as mandatory competition repertoire across Asia. A prolific soloist with major orchestras and collaborator on award-winning documentaries, Gao has spent three decades bridging East and West through both performance and invention, including the development of the shaoqin, an extended-range erhu variant.