Profile

Magdalen Hsu-Li is a pioneer among Asian-American women in music. One of the first Bi Chinese-American singer-songwriters to emerge in the United States as a star in the acoustic/pop/alternative genre, Magdalen has broken new ground as the forerunner of a new wave of Asian musical artists. As novelist Amy Tan defined the first era of Asian-American literature, so is Magdalen defining what Asian-American's in popular music can do today.

Magdalen writes universal, personal, and political songs that stretch the boundaries of our consciousness, while appealing to a wide spectrum of people.

Born in 1970 in America's rural south, Magdalen grew up in one of the only Asian families in Martinsville, VA. She moved up north in 1988, and began her artistic career as a painter at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. She graduated in 1992 with a BFA in Painting and was awarded the 1990 Chicago Institute of the Arts Oxbow Fellowship, the 1990 Talbout Rantoul Scholarship and the 1992 Florence Leif Award for excellence in painting. In 1992 she moved to Seattle, WA where she began her study of jazz and classical music at Cornish College of the Arts where she was the recipient of the 1995 Cornish Music Scholarship. There she studied with internationally renowned instructors such as, Janice Giteck, Julian Priester, Thomasa Eckert, Peter Mack, Jovino Santos Neto and Barbara Higbie.

Magdalen is a consummate performer, visual artist, and free spirit with a world vision who cannot be categorized. Audiences across America are raving about her powerful live performances. Her spectacular live shows are high energy, consciousness raising, events featuring: piano, vocal and and drumset duos, impromptu standup and theatre, thought provoking poetry readings, and spiritually rousing percussion and drum improvisations. Expect the unexpected…from the tenderest of piano ballads, to raging political piano punk, Magdalen is a new voice for an increasingly diverse and multicultural generation coming into their own as individuals in the 21st century.

Exclusive Interview

Special Message

Q&A
Click here to ask Magdalen a question, then check back here soon for her answer!

Contact
www.magdalenhsuli.com