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Missy Mazzoli

Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times), “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), and praised for her “apocalyptic imagination” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, Scottish Opera and many others. In 2018 she became, along with Jeanine Tesori, the first woman to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of “Best Classical Composition". From 2018-2021 she was Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. Her 2018 opera Proving Up, created with longtime collaborator librettist Royce Vavrek and based on a short story by Karen Russell, is a surreal commentary on the American dream. It was commissioned and premiered by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and Miller Theatre, and was deemed “harrowing… a true opera for its time” by the Washington Post. Her 2016 opera Breaking the Waves, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects, was called “one of the best 21st-century American operas yet” by Opera News. Breaking the Waves received its European premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival; future performances are planned at LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Adelaide Festival. Her next opera, The Listeners, will premiere in 2022 at the Norwegian National Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and Opera Philadelphia. Missy is also active in the orchestral and chamber music field, recently writing new works for the National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, BBC Philharmonia, and the Bergen Symphony, among others. In 2016, Missy and composer Ellen Reid founded Luna Lab, a mentorship program for young female, non-binary and gender nonconforming composers created in partnership with the Kaufman Music Center. Her works are published by G. Schirmer. missymazzoli.com



Photo by Marylene May

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Yue Li

 

Li Yue is a Chinese bamboo flute (dizi) performer, Associate Professor of Dizi at Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and a graduate advisor. He currently serves as Director of the Wind and Percussion Teaching and Research Office in the Department of Traditional Chinese Music at Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and is also an adjunct dizi instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music. In addition, he is the Deputy Secretary-General of the Xiao and Xun Professional Committee of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society. Li holds a Doctorate in Dizi Performance from the Central Conservatory of Music.

In 2007, he won first place in the Bamboo Flute category at the CCTV National Instrumental Music Television Competition, and in 2009 received the Gold Medal at the Golden Bell Awards for Bamboo Flute. Li was admitted to the Secondary School of the Central Conservatory of Music in 2000, where he studied under renowned dizi masters Zhang Yongfa, Liu Hanyou, Zhan Yongming, Wang Ciheng, and Xin Zhengkui. In 2006, he entered the Central Conservatory of Music to study with Professor Dai Ya, a distinguished dizi performer, educator, and doctoral advisor. In 2022, he was admitted to the doctoral program in Dizi Performance at the Central Conservatory of Music, continuing his studies with Professor Dai Ya.

In recent years, Li has been invited to perform as a dizi soloist with leading orchestras and ensembles worldwide, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Folk Chamber Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, and the China National Traditional Orchestra, among many others, giving hundreds of performances.

Li joined the faculty of the US-China Music Institute at Bard in 2025 through USCMI's ongoing partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.