BIO

Elliona Z. S. Li is a Chinese Canadian composer. Having been raised in both Eastern and Western cultures, Li’s music often features intricate combinations of elements from both traditions. She began her musical journey at the age of 5 as a pianist and, by age 15, scored her first TV cartoon series in 2007.

Li studied under renowned composers Ian Krouse and Peter Golub, earning her BA (cum laude) in 2016, MA in 2021 and PhD in Composition, specializing in visual media composition, from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in 2024.

Swaying Flower Petals

Poem by Ling Ling Chen

This piece uses metaphors such as flowers and winds to depicts women’s oppressions in old Taiwan. How they couldn’t show and express their struggles due to the conservative social environment. The opening motif can be treated as an idée fixe for the setting sun, a metaphor for women’s fates. It appears multiple times throughout the music with different texts and variations. The repeated patterns in the guitar is a “spinning wheel” like gesture like in “Gretchen am Spinnrade”. It represents her hopelessness and helplessness, which would later turn into hysteria as the music progresses. 

Make Me Proud

Number from Li’s new chamber opera “Worthless“ (work in progress,) the song depicts a mother rocking her baby to sleep with a lullaby that is full of striking messages.

Nothing is Going to be a Thing

The first movement of Li’s Symphony No. 1, the piece depicts constant struggles of being interrupted by the world around us.