MM – The Juilliard School

BM, BS – Northwestern University

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Cellist Jeffrey Li began his musical studies at age 4 playing the piano before switching to cello at age 9. A California native, Li made his soloist debut at age 13 playing the Dvořák Cello Concerto, and by 15 had performed Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 with numerous orchestras throughout Los Angeles. Li has since given concerts at venues including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

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Li completed his Bachelor of Music degree at Northwestern University, where in 2011 he was the winner of the Concerto and Aria Competition and Samuel and Elinor Thaviu Endowed Strings Competition. In 2012, he performed as soloist Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto in E Minor under the baton of Maestro Victor Yampolsky with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra.

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Li also received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Northwestern and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2011 to begin an early career in software development. Starting at Microsoft, he worked on Office for iPad, and later at Google, the Chrome web browser. While at Google, Li simultaneously enrolled at The Juilliard School, traveling weekly to New York City to complete his Master of Music degree. The commute was featured in the Aspen Times in the summer of 2018 while he was attending the Aspen Music Festival and School. Presently, Li is the co-founder and CTO of Zocal Inc, a mobile phone location-sharing service.

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As an educator, many of Li's cello students have been past competition prizewinners and former principal players of several bay area youth orchestras. Li has also been a guest lecturer at The Juilliard School's precollege division, speaking on topics ranging from the shared mechanics of music and mathematics to time management and entrepreneurship. In 2019, he designed and taught an industry-focused college course in introductory C++ programming at California State University, Fullerton. Several of his past students and mentees have since accepted full-time and internship positions at Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia.

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Li's most influential teachers are Hans Jørgen Jensen, Richard Aaron, and masterclass studies with Lynn Harrell. His primary instrument is a c.1790 English cello, and bows by Georges-Léon Lamy and Émile Auguste Ouchard.