GAO Ping, serving as a Professor of the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, is a composer-pianist. Born in Chengdu, Sichuan province of China, he studied in the USA in the 1990s. He previously taught and served as the head of the Composition Program at the Music College-Capital Normal University as well as the School of Music at Canterbury University in New Zealand. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the Orchestra Wellington in 2018.

His teaching activities extend from undergraduate to graduate levels. With long experience in composition and performance, he is able to bring special insights and practicality into the classroom. He is a believer in the musician’s role in education and continues to be active in promoting a greater appreciation of music, in academic as well as in broader social environments.

As a pianist, GAO Ping's repertoire is extensive. He has performed to acclaim all over the world. In 2008, GAO Ping premiered his Piano Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mr. Kenneth Young. The Listener enthusiastically acclaimed the two-movement work as "a major concerto".

In demand as a composer, he has received commissions and performances from musicians around the world. Many prestigious venues have presented his work such as the Aspen Music Festival, Dresdener Musikfestspiele, Hibiki Hall Festival (Japan), New Zealand International Arts Festival (Wellington), Sound Parry Music Festival in Canada, and the Beijing Modern International Music Festival. His works have been performed by musicians such as Ursula Oppens, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Houstoun, Sheng Yuan, Kathryn Stott, Jim Campbell, Frederic Chiu, Jonathan Lemalu, and ensembles such as the New Zealand String Quartet, Australia String Quartet, Tang Quartet, Pyramide Ensemble (Switzerland), Israel Contemporary Players, NZTrio, Stroma (NZ), Orchestra Wellington, Christchurch Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, among others.    

GAO Ping's two albums of chamber works released on the Naxos label were critically acclaimed. A critic described his work as "music which wants to be heard with ears of a child, full of wonder and amazement…. deep and vulnerable." (Tokafi, Germany)

His recent albums, Outside the Window and Pure Wind, were released by China Records Company and People's Music Publishing House in 2017. One of the other works Piano Concerto No.1 was published by Shanghai Music Publishing House. Since 2020, the Southwest University Press published a series of GAO's collections of music, including piano albums Outside the Window (2020), Wanderings (2022), and the song cycle Melodies Abandoned (2020). 

His work Four Not-Alike (Chinese: 四不像), for vocalizing pianist and Chinese chamber orchestra, which received highly-praised performances in St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Wellington, Auckland, Belgrade, Plovdiv, and Beijing, pointed a new direction of GAO's approach to a fresh expression combining Western and Chinese instruments.

In 2016, GAO Ping was commissioned by artist Mr. Chen Danqing, the head of the Mu Xin Museum, to compile the music manuscripts by the late artist Mu Xin and to create new compositions with the material. He performed these compositions in a concert at the museum, which received much critical response from the press as well as the general audience.