Biography

Chinese American composer Kevin Xing Ru Li (b.1997) creates lush, emotionally expressive music that invites listeners on a captivating journey, allowing them to explore and reflect on the beauty of life. His music has been featured at the View from the Edge series concert and the Midwest Composer Symposium.

Li views music as a tool to reflect the human condition and current social issues, and his compositions draw from diverse cultural influences including Chinese folk, American jazz, and European classical music. His solo flute work, The Last Fenghuang, was the Finalist at the 2019 Classic Pure Vienna International Music Composition competition.

He grew up in an artistic family, surrounded by the captivating sound of orchestras. Since an early age, he devoted himself to learning piano and clarinet, and his hard work was rewarded when he won multiple national and international youth competitions during his teens in China. His musical talent was further recognized at The Beijing Hall, where he held his piano recital in 2015.

After spending his formative years honing his craft, he decided to pursue formal music composition studies and earned his Bachelor of Music in commercial production and Master of Music in composition at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (CCM). He is currently continuing his education at CCM, pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition and cognates in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of Dr. Douglas Knehans and Dr. Aik Khai Pung. He also serves as the Graduate Assistant for Intro to Orchestration and Special Topics courses and Assistant Conductor for the CCM 2023 production of Tchaikovsky’s Ballet: Sleeping Beauty.

In addition to concert music, Li is passionate about merging art music and commercial music. His film score for the indie film Margie’s Christmas Eve won the Florence Film Award: Best Original Score, Tuscany, Italy, 2021, and made it to the Finalist of Best Soundtrack: Oniors Film Awards – New York, NY, 2021.