Bio

Qiujiang Levi Lu / 卢秋江 is an experimental musician, composer, creative technologist, and educator whose work spans live performance, instrument design, composition, installation, film scoring, and multimedia production. Described by I Care If You Listen as “brutally cohesive,” Lu creates work in which tenderness and violence occupy the same sonic space, using sound to shape encounters with vulnerability, force, and altered perception.

At the center of Lu’s practice are self-made electroacoustic instruments. They have developed intraoral microphone-speaker feedback systems, amplified laptops, motion-sensing electronics, and other tools that extend the body as part of the instrument itself. Working with feedback, live processing, gestural interfaces, and unstable electronic systems, Lu develops performances that move between improvisation and composition. Their works often draw from Chinese cultural and spiritual lineages while engaging noise, embodied technology, queerness, and transformation.

Lu’s performances often unfold as ritual-inflected improvisations that bring Chinese cultural lineages into conversation with contemporary noise, experimental music, and embodied technology. Their work engages body dysmorphia, queerness, spirituality, and transformation, drawing audiences into a form of listening that can feel intimate, unstable, and unsettling. Whether performing with self-built instruments, writing for ensembles, or constructing immersive installations, Lu approaches sound as a material that can alter the relationship between body, identity, and environment.

As a collaborative musician and improviser, Lu is one half of Warp Duo, a Chinese-American experimental electronic act with violinist and improviser Scott Li. The duo combines cathartic performance with maximalist sound design and electroacoustic improvisation, and has created scores for numerous film projects. Their score for Whale 52 | Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale received major international recognition, with the film winning the Crystal Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2025 and the Best Sound Design Award at the One Fluid Night LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in 2026. Lu has also performed and collaborated internationally with artists including DoYeon Kim, Li-Chin Li, Ka Baird, Dennis Sullivan, Madison Wada/HOMESICK, BAKUDI SCREAM, Julian Pujols Quall, Camilo Angeles, Shannon Yu, Yang Sun, Cass Yao, and Drew Wesely.

A prize winner of the International Electronic Music Competition in 2023, Lu has presented work across North America, Europe, and Asia. Selected venues and festivals include La MaMa, MATA Festival, High Zero Festival, IRCAM Forum, Threading Festival, and Temple Dongjingyuan. They have held residencies at ISSUE Project Room, Harvestworks, Wave Farm, The New School, and Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm. Lu has received commissions from TAK Ensemble, Popebama, and Luke Helker. Their work has also been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants program, the Ernst & Young Emergent Futures Fellowship, and NEW INC.

Lu is a lecturer in music at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania. They have also served on the faculty of TAK Lab, TAK Ensemble’s summer intensive for creative musicians, and teach private students in composition, electronic music, and creative technology. They have presented guest lectures, workshops, and performances at institutions including Stanford University CCRMA, Princeton University, NYU, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Southern California, Zagreb Music Academy, Oberlin Conservatory, The New School, and Parsons School of Design. Lu holds a degree in Computer Music from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and a degree in Music Composition from Stony Brook University.