Yihui Liu is a composer, music producer, songwriter, classical pianist, and educator. She has been professionally trained in music for over 20 years. Holding a bachelor’s degree from the Oberlin Conservatory as well as a master’s degree from the Juilliard School, she is currently researching her doctoral thesis about composing deep adaptive music for video games at the ICIT program at UC Irvine. Her recent academic writing includes a paper about adaptive game music published at the Alliance of Women in Media Arts and Technology Conference (AWMAT) 2019.

Yihui has scored original soundtracks for videogames, films, and commercials, including – video game Scarlet Fantasy by Emprom Game (shipped on Steam), casual mobile game StarGazing (shipped for iOS and Android), 2D platformer game Mastery by Tunacat Studio (presented at the GDC 2019), tower defense game Snayr, VR pre-show experience for musical production Higher Education (Apples and Oranges Studio). She has worked closely with filmmakers on projects including Tricks of Mind (showcased on 2019 Newport Beach Film Fest), Apricot Jam directed by Shan Jiang. She had also composed for commercial ads.

As a classical pianist, she has performed in venues such as the Kennedy Center, the Fontainebleau chateau, Morgan Library of New York, Paul Recital Hall at the Juilliard School. Her recitals are heard all over the world including the U.S., Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Canada, Singapore, among others. She has performed as the soloist with orchestras including the Juilliard PianoScope Chamber Orchestra, Oberlin Orchestra, among others. Her interpretation of Ravel’s music has been awarded by the Fontainebleau School in France.

In her music background, she has worked and studied with many famous artists, including – piano performance with Robert Shannon and Matti Raekallio, film composition and music production with Edward Bilous, interactive music technology with Mari Kimura, Baroque keyboard music with Peter Sykes, music theory with David Heetderks, computer music with Christopher Dobrian, sound design with Vincent Olivieri, conducting with Raphael Jiménez, and Jazz theory with Bobby Ferrazza, among others.

Yihui is interested in bringing traditions and compositional techniques in classical music to other musical genres such as EDM, Jazz, and types of screen scoring.

More information is available on her website: www.melismaticwitch.com.