Dr. Mei Zhong, soprano, currently serves on faculty of Ball State University as Professor of Voice. She earned Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Master of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance and Practices from the University of California, Los Angeles, Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from Hunan Normal University and Vocal Performance diploma for advanced study from Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Prior to Ball State University, Dr. Zhong taught at Idaho State University and Hunan Normal University. She has served as Lecture Professor, Honorary Professor and Guest Professor at several universities in China since 1999. Dr. Zhong is a member of the Committee on International Initiatives of the College Music Society. 

In addition to teaching Applied Voice at Ball State University at doctoral, masters and undergraduate levels, Dr. Zhong has taught courses such as Vocal Pedagogy, Vocal Literature, and Introduction to Piano. Many of her students have placed in vocal competitions, as well as successfully assumed teaching positions at universities in both the U.S. and China.

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As an opera singer and concert soloist, Dr. Zhong has performed extensively in China, the United States and Europe. For seven years, she was an opera singer and accordionist at Hengyang Baihua Theater, an Opera and Dance Theater in Hunan, China, performing in surrounding cities, and on local television and radio stations. While studying at UCLA, she was filmed by the Central China Documentary Film of Beijing. 

       
Aside from performing as a soloist in the UCLA Choral and Symphony Orchestra production of Dvorák's Te Deum, conducted by Donald Neuen, Dr. Zhong performed in television productions for KSCI in Los Angeles and Idaho's Public Access Television in Pocatello, and appeared on WFIU Public Radio of Indiana University.
 
Dr. Zhong has performed several lead roles in opera productions, such as Butterfly in Madama Butterfly, Sister Angelica in Suor Angelica, Micaëla in Carmen, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas at Illinois Opera Theater, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in the United States. Coached vocally for four years by John Wustman at the University of Illinois, Dr. Zhong was a soloist in his highly acclaimed series, The Complete Songs of Schubert.
 
In 2017, Dr. Zhong took the soloist role performed in the symphonic choral concert held in the Toronto Center for Arts for the celebration of Canada’s 150 years anniversary, and performed in the same concert hall again with a local orchestra in 2019. In 2018, Zhong appeared as a soloist in the big concert held in the Kauffman Music Center in Kansas City.  In 2015, Dr. Zhong performed at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center as the soloist in the seventh movement of the symphonic and chorus work Ode to Peace. In 2014, Dr. Zhong appeared as a soloist in the Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, with Muncie Symphony Orchestra and chorale unions. In 2012 and 2015, Zhong was a soloist in symphonic choral works Toward the Future (fourth movement) and Ode to Peace (seventh movement), the two world premiere performances, held in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland-College Park. In Indiana, Dr. Zhong sang as a soloist with Earlham Symphony Orchestra in Carl Orff's  Carmina Burana (2011) and Muncie Symphony Orchestra in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Dona Nobis Pacem (2008).
 
Her numerous concert performances and over one hundred and twenty solo recitals have taken her to professional performance venues across Arkansas, Alabama, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New York,  North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
 
Dr. Zhong has prolific publications including scholarly journal articles, books and recordings, several of which have been reviewed by NATS Journal of Singing. An active teacher, singer and scholar, Dr. Zhong has given many master classes, lecture recitals and presentations at institutions, conferences and festivals internationally, such as in Australia, Costa Rica, Canada, China, Finland, France,  Ireland,  Italy, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan, Trinidad, Sweden and the United States. In 2009, she presented a lecture-recital at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Paris, France. In 2013, she presented a lecture-recital at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Brisbane, QLD, Australia. In 2014, she presented her paper at the Ninth International Conference on the Arts in Society, in Rome, Italy. In 2015, she gave a lecture-recital at the International Conference of College Music Society held in Sweden and Finland. Dr. Zhong has presented at over 50 conferences worldwide.
 

In 2007,  Dr. Zhong was invited to San Diego to be one of the four master teachers from the US and Canada for the National Association of Teachers of Singing Winter Workshop,  Around the World--Art Song from the Four Corners, where she presented three sessions of Chinese Diction, Repertoire, and a master class. In the same year, she was one of the adjudicators for the China Higher Education in Music-National Vocal Competition of Vocal Instructors and Graduate Students held in Nanjing. 

 

Dr. Zhong was the recipient of many awards and grants. She was the sole recipient of the University Outstanding Creative Endeavor Award - the top honor given to Ball State University faculty in 2007, and was one of five faculty members honored with the Master Teacher Award from Idaho State University in 2002.  As one of twelve teachers selected from United States, Dr. Zhong was awarded a fellowship for studying in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program held in Ithaca, New York in 2000. She received the first prize in the National Vocal Competition for the Alice Abel National Vocal and Instrumental Awards in the 2000, after winning twice at the Idaho District Vocal Competition in 2000 and 1999.  She was a recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award at 2016 Peacock National Vocal Competition of Higher Arts Education in China.

 

Her proposals won funding from such institutes as Indiana Arts Commission, Ball State University Research Committee, Creative Arts Committee, Publication and Intellectual Properties Committee, Diversity Associates Program, and more. Dr. Zhong was awarded Faculty Research Grant and was twice nominated for the Distinguished Researcher of the Year Award at Idaho State University. 

 

Dr. Zhong received the Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship; Mimi Alert Feldman Scholarship (two years); Atwater Kent Award (two years); Edna and Yu Shanhan Scholarships (three years); Tzi-Chi Scholarship, and the University of Illinois Campus Dissertation Grant. She received the Artist Honor from Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

 

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