Shuying Li

From Wind Repertory Project
Shuying Li

Biography

Shuying Li (b. 1989, China) is a Chinese-American pianist, composer and conductor.

Shuying Li began her musical education in her native China. In her sophomore year at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she won a scholarship to continue study at the Hartt School in Connecticut. She holds a doctoral and master’s degree from the University of Michigan. Her composition teachers include Michael Daugherty, Evan Chambers, Ye Guohui, Robert Carl and Larry Alan Smith. She studied conducting with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming, and studied piano with Paul Rutman. Additionally, Shuying has worked with Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, Christopher Theofanidis, and Steven Mackey.

Dr. Li taught and directed the Composition/Music Theory Program at Gonzaga University before joining the faculty at California State University, Sacramento, in the fall of 2022.


Shuying Li’s compositions have been performed by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and the Atlas Ensemble (Netherlands), among others. She has received awards or grants from OPERA America, China National Arts Fund, ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition, New Jersey Composers’ Guild Commission Competition, International Huang Zi Composition Competition, Melta International Composition Competition, and others.

A believer that music has the innate power to promote cultural diversity by connecting people through universally human passions and values, Shuying founded the Four Corners Ensemble in 2017. As artistic director and conductor of the ensemble, Shuying’s efforts have led to residencies and performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, the Polish Consulate General in New York City, and the Hartford Opera Theater. Shuying also pioneered the Operation Opera Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Shuying has been named one of the three resident composers in the Composer Librettist Development Program with the American Lyric Theater (ALT) in their 2017-2018 season, to write a one-act opera. In 2014, after performances by the Hartt Wind Ensemble and the University of Cincinnati CCM Wind Orchestra, Shuying’s work for band, Slippery Slope, won the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize.

Li has received awards or grants from OPERA America, China National Arts Fund, ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition, New Jersey Composers’ Guild Commission Competition, International Huang Zi Composition Competition, Melta International Composition Competition, and others. Other awards include recognition as a finalist in the 2017, 2016 and 2015 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the Michigan Music Teachers Association Commissioned Composer Competition, and the International J. Dorfman Composition Competition, among others.

Recent or upcoming projects include performances by “The President's Own” United States Marine Band, Windscape Woodwind Quintet, and the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia; an opera commissioned by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music; an orchestra consortium; and two band consortium commissions including a CBDNA West/Northwest Region “Bridgework” Commission.


Works for Winds


Resources

  • The Horizon Leans Forward…, compiled and edited by Erik Kar Jun Leung, GIA Publications, 2021, p. 390.
  • Shuying Li website Accessed 21 January 2019