COMPOSER

​

With a deep enthusiasm for new music, an intense curiosity about the world of sound, and a rich multicultural background, Geli Li (b. 1992) is a Chinese-born American composer whose work bridges Eastern and Western musical traditions through a distinct personal idiom and contemporary musical vocabulary. She started her musical training at the piano at age five and began professional music composition and theory studies at twelve, later expanding her education through conservatories and universities in China, Germany, and the United States. Over the past two decades, her musical journey has taken her across Asia, Europe, and North America.

​

She received a rigorous and academically grounded education at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg under Elmar Lampson and at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with Wenchen Qin and Weiya Hao. Li holds a doctoral degree in Music Composition with a concentration in Electronic Music from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with Januibe Tejera and Yevgeniy Sharlat. Her artistic development has also been enriched by influential mentorships, including Augusta Read Thomas, Francesca Verunelli, and Chen Qigang.

​

Since 2020, Li has increasingly focused on sound exploration and timbre-driven approaches to musical creation. Her Breath series—seven works for diverse instrumentations—embraces both acoustic and electronic media. Highlights include Breath VI (2024) for amplified accordion, composed for Anthony Millet and premiered at IRCAM’s ManiFeste Academy, and Breath II (2021) for string trio, premiered by Hanatsu Miroir and later recorded by the Talea Ensemble. Additional recent works include Sleeping Light for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and conducted by Brad Lubman; The Smell of Sunshine, commissioned by the Mizzou International Composers Festival and premiered by Alarm Will Sound under Alan Pierson in July 2025; Vertical Scaling, commissioned by Copland House’s CULTIVATE Institute and premiered in New York City in June 2025; and The Embrace of Wind and the Memories (2022) for cello and electronics, premiered and recorded by Jay Campbell.

​

In recent years, Li’s compositional philosophy has centered on expanding the sound-map, reimagining musical parameters with openness and curiosity, and positioning music as a medium for cross-cultural reflection. Her timbre-oriented practice engages with traditional Eastern instruments—such as the Chinese sheng, Japanese shō, and Korean gayageum—by uncovering distinct sonic qualities, reshaping them into newly articulated languages, and recontextualizing them within broader contemporary vocabularies. This process infuses these instruments with new vitality and sonic possibility, expanding their roles within contemporary practice and encouraging intercultural dialogue. She also views composition as an ecology of sound, where acoustic and electronic domains converge to generate new expressive potentials.

​

This aesthetic is central to Me and My Shadows, her concerto for Chinese sheng and Western ensemble, which brings the instrument into a contemporary new-music idiom. Continuing this direction, When My Eyes Closed—for accordion, Japanese shō, and alto saxophone—was premiered in June 2025 at the Valentiny Foundation in Luxembourg, commissioned by Ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin. She is also collaborating with the AsianArt Ensemble Berlin on a new work that explores Korean gayageum, violin, double bass, and percussion as an “inverted string quartet,” blending Eastern and Western instrumental voices; the work will be premiered in Berlin in August 2025.

​

Li’s music has been performed across three continents by more than thirty ensembles and orchestras, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Talea Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Klangforum Wien, Copland House Ensemble, andPlay, Ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin, Hanatsu Miroir, Chamber Orchestra Jahrhundert-XX-Österreich, NOMAD Tokyo, Berlin Zafraan Ensemble, 4Sonora String Quartet, Switch~Ensemble, SoundMap Ensemble, Balance Campaign Ensemble, Tace t(i) Ensemble, Chartreuse Trio, Fear No Music Ensemble, Hub New Music, Beijing Modern Ensemble, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, China Broadcast Orchestra, Beijing Chinese Orchestra, and the Central Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. She has received more than forty-five international awards and honors, with her work featured at over thirty major festivals worldwide.

​

Most recently (2024–2025), she has received commissions from the Henri Lazarof Living Legacy at Brandeis University, the Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut and Hub New Music, Ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin, Copland House’s CULTIVATE Institute, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the DeGaetano Composition Institute, and the Potries Composition Residency.

​

Since 2024, Li has served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Macalester College, where she teaches courses in music composition, theory, and new music.