I founded Soloist because I recognized there was a lack of a consistent, high-quality standard of excellence in the world of music education and instruction. I arrived at this conclusion after many years as a student and a teacher in both mainland China and the United States. And while both approaches have their strengths, their glaring shortcomings were not being addressed. This was the genesis of the Soloist project.

Many schools and institutions do not possess a sufficiently rigorous screening process in hiring music instructors. Subsequently, many of these instructors, who ultimately wind up on faculty , can lack essential performance degrees or may even be self-taught. This no doubt reflects the amount of money in which an institution of higher learning is willing to pay in salaries, which in turn weakens the talent pool. This state of affairs hurts not only the students, but is also a disservice to the parents, and ultimately can cause the reputation of the teaching institution to suffer. Money should be well spent. 

Let’s be honest. A good teacher, at the very best, can become a lifelong mentor; a bad one can turn a student off forever. 

So, with this knowledge in hand, I set out to create a highly professional platform, employing only the best instructors - those with Doctoral degrees in music. Our faculty is compensated at  more than 70% of current rates, thus ensuring much higher retention rates. Only when instructors are receiving their worth, can a virtuous circle emerge - creating a positive environment where learning is taken seriously.

And more than this, I learned how important it was to teach with empathy. One of Soloist’s goals is for every faculty member to be trained in the art of empathic teaching. This method allows for a deeper emotional bond between instructors and students, fostering a more genuine emergence of the student into not only the artist they desire to be, but also giving them the conditions to become more fully human. Teaching is far more than just a commercial relationship. Let’s make more music together!

Happy holidays

Huizi Zhang