Meet Peter Zongting Li | Music Composer & Sound Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Peter Zongting Li and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Peter Zongting, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
I am never afraid of change. I grew up in a small town where people had a very fixed lifestyle. Through the years I studied and explored different parts of the world, I realized that there are so many different but also meaningful ways of living. This idea also helps me understand myself as a composer better – there is not only one way of approaching creativity. Whenever there is something new challenging me, I will not sit inside my comfort zone. I will always remind myself that changing can help me become more adapted to this world where new things keep being updated.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Most of my works are animations that I did both in music composition and sound design. I’m proud of being in both roles for one project. It was not easy to reach this point, it took me a couple of projects to figure out the best workflow for it.

Initially, I was just a music composer, who only wrote music for the picture. But there was one short animation I scored when I brought my music in for the revised version, the sound designer turned down my music to a super low volume because he would love to hit certain things by using sound effects. However, I disagreed with that decision because I believed some moments can be more artistically beautiful by using music to hit. So I started digging into the sound design world at that moment to make sure I understand both sound and music well in the media world.

By doing both works for one project, I gradually improved my dub mixing skills as a dubbing engineer (who will balance both sound and music in the final stage before the film gets premiere). I also become a good friend to many composers when I am doing dubbing mixes because I understand how to make the music shine at their moments to carry the storyline without turning down the volume roughly.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I always love to show them the great dancing studio – Millennium Dance Complex. Dancing is such an important element in my life. It always brings me positive energies and joys regardless of how depressed I was. I believe it is a special way to bring friends together.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Columbia College Chicago MFA Music Composition for the Screen program helped me to find my career path as a media composer in a very clear way. I learned so many practical ways of composing music for media and doing sound design. It brought me a system where I can boost my creativity with efficiency. Surrounded by all talented composers at Columbia, I developed my style of producing music. Without Columbia College Chicago, I would’ve never thought of being a professional media composer.

Website: www.peterlisound.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peterlisound/

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/peter-zongting-li

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCG_tCt9IdQI6gysB_Gjxiw