Born in Ürümqi, China, pianist Qiaochuhan Li began her music studies as the drum major in her kindergarten marching band. Now pursuing Bachelor’s degrees in piano performance, global studies, and East Asian Studies at Lawrence University, she is passionate about exploring intersections of music and cultural studies through a variety of musicking activities.

An avid chamber musician, Qiaochuhan performed J. S. Bach’s Concerto in A Minor for Four Harpsichords as a finalist at the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Other recent performance highlights include George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae and Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81. Qiaochuhan works as an Accompanying Fellow at Lawrence and collaborates extensively with her instrumental and vocal colleagues. She currently plays for the voice studio of John Gates and, in 2023, served as a rehearsal pianist for Lawrence’s Mainstage Opera production of Alcina. Qiaochuhan’s past festival participation includes Taconic Music Chamber Music Intensive, Adamant Music School, Rocky Ridge Music, and Decoda Chamber Music Festival. Her principal music mentors include Anthony Padilla, Catherine Kautsky, Samantha George, Wen-Lei Gu, Asiya Korepanova, and Julie and Neil Freebern. 

In addition to performance, Qiaochuhan is completing an honors thesis on Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly. Her research—titled “Recomposing Madama Butterfly: Opera as a Space of Self-Representation” and funded by the Lawrence University George '51 and Marjorie '44 Chandler Endowment for the Senior Experience—examines the transformation of Madama Butterfly’s Oriental Fantasy in Mo Zhou’s recent production that reimagines the opera in post-World War II Nagasaki through the lens of Japanese war brides. 

In her free time, Qiaochuhan is an amateur violist, an alpine skier, a runner, and a coffee enthusiast.