Music like In Her Own Words

Magdalen Hsu-Li is a Chinese American singer-songwriter, painter, speaker, writer and cultural activist. She identifies herself as bisexual. She is a leader in the introduction of Asian-American pop music. The singer/songwriter demonstrates talents on acoustic piano, percussion, impromptu stand-up and theater. Additionally she reads poetry and improvises musical performances.

Hsu-Li was born in the southern Virginia city of Martinsville to Chinese immigrant parents. She began piano lessons at age 8 but was mainly interested in painting in her early years.

She attended college at the Rhode Island School of Design where she won accolades including the Florence Leif Award for Excellence in Painting, the Talbot Rantoul Scholarship and the Chicago Institute of the Arts Oxbow Fellowship. After graduating, she moved to Seattle, Washington, and discovered a passion for music over visual art. She matriculated at the Cornish College of the Arts, where she studied classical music and jazz and won a music scholarship in 1995. In 2008 she graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Songwriting.