Currently a Visiting Professor of Music at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Dr. Xinyan Li’s music works have been featured at Aspen Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, National Opera Center, Composers Now Festival, Music Mountain Festival, Seal Bay Festival, Beijing International Chamber Music Festival, Thailand International Composition Festival, Nordic International Bassoon Symposium, the 44th and 45th IDRS Annual Conference, SCI National Conference, Gamle Logen, Herbst Theatre, Symphonoy Space, and China’s National Center for the Performing Arts. She was invited as a visiting composer by Aspen Music Festival in 2007 and 2015; her interview and six works have been broadcasted by Sweden’s national radio—Sveriges Radio in 2011; her wind quintet Mo Suo’s Burial Ceremony was released by Albany Records in 2019, performed by Pan Pacific Ensemble; her three chamber works were published by TrevCo Music Publishing. Her music has been performed by members of Eighth Blackbird, PRISM Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Bergen Woodwind Quintet, Cassatt String Quartet, Earplay, Quintet of the Americas, bassoonists Per Hannevold and Jeffrey Lyman, Quintette K, Donald Sinta Quartet, Music From China, as well as principal musicians of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Montreal, Bergen Orchestras and Danish Chamber Orchestra. Her awards include ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, American Composers Orchestra New Music Readings, Tsang-Houei Hsu International Music Composition Award, IDRS Conference 2016 Schwob Prize in Composition, LunArt Festival Call for Scores, TEMPO New Music Ensemble Call for Scores, as well as grants from National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts.

Dr. Li has conducted field research on Chinese folk songs, folk chorus and ethnic instrumental music of various minorities, such as Dong, Miao, Yi, and Zhuang in southwest China, as well as Mongolian and Daur in northeast China. She has also extensively studied roles, singing styles, and instrumental music of Beijing Opera and Kunqu. Rooted in Chinese music and culture, she composed a duet for qingyi and xiao, a chamber concerto for hualian and chamber orchestra, a septet for guqin, guanzi, and five western instruments, a trio for flute, pipa, and cello, and a quartet for flute, pipa, erhu, and percussion. These compositions have been performed by virtuosos Zhihou Hu, Zhang Qiang, Zhou Yi, Shenshen Zhang, Guowei Wang, Chen Yue, Huang Mei, as well as Beijing Opera actress Zhu Hong and actor Qingxian Liu.

Dr. Li received her doctoral degree in composition at University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at China Conservatory of Music in composition and music theory. She is a Visiting Professor of Music in the undergraduate US-China Music Institute program of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. She has taught composition and music theory at New York Philharmonic Orchestra Very Young Composers Program, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and China Conservatory of Music. Her composition students have been accepted by the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music, and Berklee College of Music. She has given music lectures at Grieg Academy-University of Bergen in Norway and Adelphi University in New York.

As a pianist, she is skilled in playing improvisation piano accompaniment. She has performed in Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, Kaufman Music Center, and Greenfield Hall at Manhattan School of Music. She has worked with Metropolitan Opera conductor Gregory Buchalter, New England Conservatory professor Karen Holvik, and Chinese singer Gong Linna.