GEli Li 

Composer
Sound Explorer
Pianist
Educator

Geli Li is a Chinese-born American resident composer whose music straddles Eastern and Western cultures based on her own musical vocabulary. With two decades of professional experience in music composition, she has dedicated herself to new music realm that embracing from acoustic to electronic musical medias, from solo to orchestra, and from Eastern to Western instruments. 

 

Her compositions have internationally performed by many leading artists and over 40 ensembles, such as the Talea Ensemble, members of the TAK Ensemble and JACK Quartet, Klangforum Wien, Hanatsu Miroir, NOMAD Tokyo, Berlin Zafraan Ensemble, [Switch~Ensemble], Tace t(i) Ensemble, Chamber Orchestral-Jahrhundert- xx- Österreich, Chartreuse Trio, SoundMap Ensemble, Balance Campaign Ensemble, Unheard-of Ensemble, Fear No Music Ensemble, Beijing Modern Ensemble,China Broadcast Orchestra, Central Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, and among others. Li’s music has achieved global recognition, leading to her selection as a composer fellow at over 40 prestigious music festivals, conferences, and academic programs. These include the Rodamúsic Composers Residency (2024), DeGaetano Composition Institute (2024), ManiFeste Academy (2024), the Women Composers Festival of Hartford in 2023 and 2024, UNK New Music Series and Festival (2023), Florida State University New Music Festival (2022), Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium (2021), Das China Festival der Hochschüler für Musik und Theater (2014), Intimacy of Creativity Music Festival (2017), and others. 

 

Li’s educational journey has spanned Asia, Europe, and North America, reflecting her global perspective on music and commitment to musical innovation and cross-cultural dialogue. She studied the doctoral degree in Music Composition from the University of Texas at Austin, where she received the Academic Excellence and Kent Kennan Endowed Graduate Fellowship. Additionally, she studied Music Composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Germany, under Elmar Lampson from 2014 to 2015, and holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music Composition and Theory from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, where she studied with Wenchen Qin.