Simon Music Center, SM135
Education
- M.F.A. in Sound Design, California Institute of the Arts, 2020
- B.F.A. in Recording Arts, Guangxi Arts University, China, 2016
Bo Li is assistant professor of music in music production: audio engineering at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
He is an audio professional whose life is defined by the emotional power of sound. His musical journey began at the age of nine when he first performed on an erhu, and his passion led him to pursue a B.F.A. in Recording Arts. Later, the California Institute of the Arts awarded him a $120,000 three-year full Lillian Disney Scholarship to further his studies in the M.F.A. in Sound Design program.
Li was sound supervisor for the film Unforgotten, winning a gold medal at the Student Academy Awards as well as other best-film awards at Oscar-qualifying festivals such as Cinequest. He has worked on immersive 360-degree soundscapes as a designer with Thea Award-winning theme park company Ears Up Sound Design for SeaWorld Abu Dhabi and collaborated with top game companies such as Tencent and Electronic Arts.
Notably, he has received the Gold Award Statue for Acoustic Electronic Music at the Denver International Festival of Arts & Technology, Chunhui Cup Award in Audio Technology from China’s Ministry of Education, Silver Award at the China Sound Academy Award, third prize at the Berlin International Sound Design Competition, and second prize at the Beijing International Electronic Music Festival.
Li served as a distinguished judge for the Berlin Sound Design Competition and beta-tested audio industry-standard software Pro Tools and Vocoflex AI. As a clinical assistant professor at Arizona State University, he built and managed Dolby Atmos studios and mentored students who advanced to renowned institutions such as the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Boston University with full scholarships.
He has employed AI-generated sound in time-based media, and his project “Until We Meet Again,” created in collaboration with Illumination Entertainment director Momo Wang and sponsored by Kling AI, premiered at the China National Film Museum. Li’s ongoing research in VR/XR, spatial audio, ambisonics, interactive media, experimental composition, and sonic arts invites open discussion at the crossroads of humanity and engineering.