Milky Way Lovers (2013)
Quintet of the Americas met Xinyan Li when she was a resident of Flushing, Queens, NY. She gave us the parts for her woodwind quintet Mo Suo’s Burial Ceremony. It is a very interesting well-constructed piece and we were happy to commission her for another work – Milky Way Lovers.
Link to the story of Milky Way Lovers:
http://en.chinaculture.org/focus/focus/2010qixi/2010-08/16/content_391106.htm
Dr. Xinyan Li (b. 1978) is a Visiting Professor of Music in US-China Music Institute at Bard College Conservatory of Music. Born in Qiqihar, China, she received her doctoral degree in composition at University of Missouri- Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance Xinyan Li received her Doctoral degree at University of Missouri-Kansas City where she studied with professors Chen Yi, James Mobberley, Zhou Long and Paul Rudy. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at China Conservatory of Music in Beijing in composition and Music theory.
Recognized internationally, Dr. Li’s works have been featured at Carnegie Hall, National Opera Center, Composers Now Festival, Music Mountain Festival, Beijing International Chamber Music Festival, IDRS Annual Conference, Thailand International Composition Festival, China’s National Center for the Performing Arts, IDRS Conference 2016 Schwob Prize in Composition, and LunArt Festival Call for Scores, The Music of Now Marathon at Symphony Space, Septembre musical de l’Orne (France), National Center for the Performing Arts (China), Gamle Logen (Norway), Shanghai Oriental Art Center (China), 5ème concours international de musique de chambre – Lyon (France), Bayer Kulturabteilung Spielzeit 08/09 (Germany), Nevada Encounters of New Music, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall, Midwest Graduate Music Consortium’s 11th and 15th Annual Conferences and SCI Region VI Conference. She was invited twice as a visiting composer by Aspen Music Festival; her interview and six works have been broadcasted by Sweden’s national radio—Sveriges Radio. Her wind quintet Mo Suo’s Burial Ceremony was released by Albany Records. Her music has been performed by members of Eighth Blackbird, PRISM Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Quintet of the Americas, Bergen Woodwind Quintet, Cassatt String Quartet, as well as principal musicians of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Montreal, Bergen Orchestras and Danish Chamber Orchestra.
Her awards and honors include the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition 2011, Morton Gould Young Composer Award, awards from the American Composers Orchestra and ASCAP, the Tsang-Houei Hsu International Music Composition Award, and the Music From China 10th International Composition Competition, IDRS Conference 2016 Schwob Prize in Composition, LunArt Festival Call for Scores, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.