Who I am…

Yingting Liu is a composer whose work explores the relationship between sound, body, and power. Born in southern China, she was trained as a Taoist priest and grew up surrounded by ritual soundscapes of breath, chant, and cyclical rhythm. Later she discovered the energy and defiance of hip-hop, electronic, and club music. These seemingly opposite influences, the stillness of ritual and the pulse of the city, form the foundation of her musical voice.

Her music examines how beauty, authority, and memory leave their traces on the body, and how sound can become a form of resistance. Gesture, movement, and voice are central to her creative language. The performer’s body, breath, and presence are treated as musical material, merging physical action and sound into one expressive space. Liu describes her work as a kind of personal opera where ritual, theatre, and music converge.

Liu earned her bachelor’s degree from the China Conservatory of Music, her master’s from the Central Conservatory of Music, and is currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Her works have been recognized by the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, 2026 MMTA Composer Commission, 2026 Hear & Now Composition competition at Westminster University, International Digital Music Innovation Competition (IDMIC) , HANGZHOU 2025 Electroacoustic Music Composition Competitio, 2021RIVERS AWARDS, 2021 SUN RIVER PRIZE (ISCM), “New Music Generation,” “Ise-Shima,” and the “Luciano Berio” International Composition Competition. She has participated in major international festivals and workshops including the Mizzou International Composers Festival, RED NOTE New Music Festival, Albany Symphony Composer Workshop, Taproot New Music Festival, Splice Festival VII, ICIT Thailand, KlexosLab, Time of Music in Finland, Sävellysmestarikurssi, Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival, Darmstadt Summer Course, and the Asian Classical Music Initiative.