Qian Li immigrated to Connecticut from Beijing, China at the age of six. His fascination with music took hold at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia where he studied Balinese gamelan with Tom Whitman and composition with Gerald Levinson. After graduating in 2005, he explored his childhood dream of environmental activism through construction site monitoring, habitat restoration in the Sonoran Desert, and consulting in San Francisco. A member of multiple groups that are silenced through oppression, he works to transform the arts from an act of privilege into a tool for personal development and community building and bridging. Qian recently returned to the New York area from Oakland, California.