Dr. Zeru Wang’s teaching method can be best described as thorough and detail-oriented. He aims to help the students not only master the skills and technique to play the keyboard instrument, but also understand the intent behind the written notation supported by the knowledge of performance practice and history. In his friendly and inclusive teaching environment, he often initiates the lesson by asking questions for the students to think and develop their own ideas about music. Currently, Dr. Wang is open to both in-person lessons and online teaching.

A native of Hangzhou, China, Dr. Zeru Wang holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Missouri-Columbia. His teachers have included Christopher Taylor and Peter Miyamoto. Apart from appearing in the masterclasses of Frederic Chiu, Richard Goode, Sergei Babayan, Alessio Bax, Julian Martin, Marina Lomazov, Julio Elizalde, Gabriel Chodos, and Corey Hamm, he also studied with Peter Serkin, Yoon Hi Moon, Douglas Humphreys, Natalya Antonova, Bruce Brubaker, and Sean Duggan during several prestigious summer festivals.

As an active and enthusiastic teacher, Dr. Zeru Wang enjoys providing piano lessons to students of all ages. He has taught young and adult beginners, as well as committed students of intermediate and advanced levels. As a result of Dr. Zeru’s proven approach, his students have been highly successful in ABRSM exams, state-level piano competitions, and college auditions at prestigious U.S. music schools, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. In 2019, he conducted piano masterclasses about Chopin’s piano literature in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2021, he substituted for Professor Christopher Taylor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to teach undergraduate and graduate level Piano Literature. In 2022, he relocated to Spokane, WA. Apart from serving as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach at Gonzaga University from 2022-2023, he formed a private studio that focuses on the pre-collegiate students. He helped his students to play in different masterclasses in the MTNA Chapter and won prizes from the state-level solo/ensemble competition. Since then, he has frequently appeared on the Spokane Public Radio as a guest artist for their Piano Bench program featuring his solo recitals and projects. Recently, he collaborated with Benside Arts to present concerts featuring an authentic 1797 London Broadwood fortepiano. The program includes the Mozart Violin Sonata in E minor, K. 304, paired with a historical violin and the Haydn Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, Hob XVI: 52.

Dr. Wang is a prize-winner of many international and national piano competitions including the WPTA (World Piano Teacher Association) International Piano Competition, the Joyeux International Piano Competition, the Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music, and the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Young Artist Piano Competition. In addition to the 2021 Beethoven Competition held by the University of Wisconsin, he was selected as the winner of the 2015 MU Concerto Competition and the 2015 MU Emerging Artist Competition.

Aside from producing solo piano music, Dr. Wang is an equally passionate chamber musician and collaborative pianist who performs extensively with various ensembles. He enjoys collaborating with faculty and students from the University of Missouri, the Odyssey Summer Music Festivals, and the Bowdoin International Summer Music Festival. In 2018 he was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York with the Interharmony Chamber Music Series. In addition, he has collaborated with prominent musicians such as Saeka Matsuyama, Jonathan Weber, and Miho Zaitsu and many outstanding students from various institutions around the world. In 2021, he served as the collaborative pianist for the University of Wisconsin Wind Ensemble and premiered the “Shell and Wing” by David Biedenbender. After joining Gonzaga University in 2022, he worked with the Gonzaga Concert Choirs, the Discantus Treble Choir, the Glee Club, the Chamber Singers, and the voice studios. Recently he also published his dissertation project, “A New Edition of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111 (1821-1822)”, featuring his fingering and pedaling systems in a new edition of the work, and original ideas for performing the sonata.