Daily Inspiration: Meet Ruiqi Zhao

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruiqi Zhao.

Hi Ruiqi, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Jilin, China. At first, I did what other Chinese parents want their children to do which is getting good grades at school, getting accepted into a good university and finding a stable job, etc. But right before The national college entrance examination which is as important as the American SAT, it dawns on me that I should follow my own dream which is pursuing my enthusiasm in music.

Since I was only a little girl, music has always been my patronus which dispels the darkness in my childhood. I sang beautiful melodies when I walked home alone, I played piano when it rained heavily and I played guitar to write a song when I lost someone I loved. Deep down, I am always a dark person. Music is my spirit and it opens my secret of life, bringing peace abolishing strife. On the other hand, after I grew up, I realized that music is not only the panacea for me but it is also something I can use to help people. I once volunteered to go to a countryside to teach small kids music theory. They were so immersed and got inspired in the class and they said it was a brilliant experience for them to learn something they never got a chance to know. So I decided to use my passion to influence and help more people since then.

I started to focus on composition when I was older. And I develop more interest in film scoring later on. Then I got accepted in Contemporary Media and Film Composition at Eastman School of Music for my master degree. So I left my hometown for Rochester, New York. When I was at Eastman, I was totally blown away because we have to take command of so many skills to be able to step into this industry. We have a lot of recording sessions, which is a fantastic opportunity to conduct our music live and communicate with professional players. And it also hones our orchestration skills because the sound coming from the computers is not the same when played by live players if there is something wrong with the orchestration. The most stressful moment is that Jeff Beal who is the composer of The House of Cards will come and listen to our recording session sometime. He is also the sponsor of our program and the creator of our major. In addition, we are required to be proficient in any genre of music. It is quite a challenge!

In my academic years, After I finally started to feel confident composing, I kept exploring my special voice in film scoring and tried to find a way to make people feel connected and got influenced. In my degree recital at Eastman, I composed a string quartet called “My Life With You” to express how much I miss my family. I believe there are a lot of international students would feel related to the emotion I tried to convey through this piece. Additionally, I composed a jazz song called Tipsy, it was a really fun experience to sing my own song! I also composed trio called Meet you In My Dreams. It is to morn the people who died in the pandemic. I know the pain of losing someone. So I would like to use music universal language to help everyone who suffered alleviate the pain. Where words fail, music speaks.

After I graduated, Jeff offered us a really generous opportunity. He planned to move to New York. He left his house to us students to live, which means a lot for all of us. Luckily I was selected to be one of the candidates of this amazing opportunity.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There were a lot of struggles along the way. First, when I was back at Eastman School of Music, as an international student, I was too afraid to talk to people because of my limited English speaking skills. In the first recording session, I was supposed to conduct my piece by myself, however, I didn’t say a word on the conducting stage. I was pretty frustrated at that time. And there were so many new things for me to learn in terms of different industry-related skills, and also, living in a foreign country by myself, getting used to different culture is exhausted too.

After graduating, I moved to LA, it is pretty stressful to find a job to maintain a legal identity in the United States as a foreigner. I was really anxious at that time.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a film music composer. After I graduated from Eastman School of Music, I moved to LA to work as a film composer. And then, I worked for Nathan Wang as an arranger and score producer. We worked on On Gold Mountain together, an opera that is going to be performed in Huntington Beach Library! And there are more projects going on. In addition, I composed some music for directors from Chapman University Film School and LMU School if Film And Television. I scored for a work “The Loneliest Whale In The World”, which is selected into many film festivals, including Leo Freedman Foundation Fellowship in Film Grant, FLICKERS’ RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL，Beirut International Film Festival, and Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Award(one of the biggest film festivals in China). And my music will also be featured in a Podcast called Dark Side of The Web, which is now on Apple Podcast. It is about a fictional account of real risks for kids and vulnerable people online. Each episode will dive into a new risk packed into a dramatic audio story. What’s more, I also scored for Pubg Trailer. It was really fun to compose intense and epic music. What is new is that I did the sound design as well! ! The most recent project is a documentary called Enchanted Matter which was already selected into Santa Barbara International Film Festival. So excited to be working on this one! Besides, I am really into songwriting, I just released my single called Passenger on Spotify. It was really fun being the songwriter and the singer that same time!

I specialized in composing, arranging, orchestration, score preparation, and singing. I think what is special about me is that I am able to get access to different cultures and intertwine different elements in my music. I am eager to learn and improve myself in many ways. Now I am a violin beginner. Another journey to explore!

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Everyone needs to stay together and be responsible not only for themselves but for others as well. And stay calm and objective about the whole pandemic. We shouldn’t blame any race or country for everything that happened. We just need to support each other to be against this pandemic.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: zhaoruiqi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruiqimusic/
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ruiqi-zhao