Yang Wei is a young pipa virtuoso. In 1978 he passed an admission examination and was admitted to the Shanghai Traditional Instruments Orchestra. He has studied the pipa with pipa virtuosos such as Sun Yude, Lin Shicheng, Qin Pengzhang and Tang Liangxing. Since 1981 he has been a student of Liu Dehai. In 1980 he won the third prize at the All-China Pipa Competition. In 1989, at the China International Competition of Chinese Traditional Instruments Performance, he won the first prize of the professional group. He has made tours to various countries and regions such as Hong Kong, Australia, France and Singapore.