Who I am…
Yingting Liu is a Chinese composer and sound artist whose work transforms cultural memory, social pressure, ritual, and resistance into immersive sonic experiences. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where she studies with Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Paul Rudy. She holds degrees from the Central Conservatory of Music and the China Conservatory of Music.
Growing from the sensory world of post-1990s China, Liu’s music brings Taoist ritual, folklore, opera, realist cinema, popular music, techno, video games, theater, and electronic media into the same artistic space. She does not separate concert music from popular culture, or tradition from contemporary life. Instead, she treats them as part of one lived memory.
Her works often combine acoustic instruments, electronics, video, movement, and experimental performance. Through music technology and interdisciplinary practice, Liu creates ritualistic and theatrical spaces where hidden histories, suppressed emotions, and unheard voices can take shape through media.
Liu’s works have been recognized by numerous international and U.S.-based composition competitions, including the MMTA Composer Commission Awards, Hear & Now Composition Competition, International Digital Music Innovation Competition, Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, “Luciano Berio” International Composition Competition, “Ise-Shima” International Composition Competition, “New Music Generation” International Composition Competition, SUN RIVER PRIZE New Music Competition, and RIVERS AWARDS Composition Competition, among others.
As a composer active in contemporary music, electronic music, and interdisciplinary creation, Liu has collaborated with a wide range of international festivals, orchestras, ensembles, performers, and interdisciplinary artists. Her works have been commissioned, performed, or developed in collaboration with Alarm Will Sound, Albany Symphony, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Splice Ensemble, S.E.M. Ensemble, Empyrean Ensemble, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Del Sol Quartet, The Rhythm Method String Quartet, TACETi Ensemble, A/B Ensemble, Schallfeld Ensemble, Kansas City Sinfonietta, Unheard of Ensemble, Ensemble DME, UMKC NEXUS Ensemble, Orchestra Academia China, and Shanghai Chamber Orchestra, among others.
She has also been selected for numerous international festivals, conferences, workshops, and programs, including the Mizzou International Composers Festival, International Computer Music Conference 2026, Time of Music Festival, RED NOTE New Music Festival, Taproot New Music Festival, Lake George Music Festival, Splice Festival, Nice International Music Festival and Academy, International Composition Institute of Thailand, Barcelona Modern International Composition Course, International Summer School for Composers DME, San Marino International Music Summer Course and Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, S.E.M. Ensemble Emerging Composers Workshop, International Interdisciplinary Institute for Musical Creation, Soundbox Fellowship Program for Composers, After Cage Composition Workshop, Cortona Sessions, Darmstadt Summer Course, KlexosLab, and Albany Symphony Composer Workshop, among others. Her collaborative practice continues to expand across concert works, electronic music, video, dance, installation, film music, and contemporary music theatre.