Xiao'an writes narratively compelling music for media with a whimsically imaginative spirit, realized by a palpably tactile craftsmanship borne out of the joy of working with his hands.

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He has a history of working with live orchestras, but today works almost exclusively with physically modeled virtual instruments performed with a combination of standard and personally modified MIDI input devices

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No stranger to commercial work, he has composed advertising music for billion dollar brands, soundtracks for mobile games with millions of players, and in 2024 was an invited judge at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. His company, Li & Ortega, has provided game audio outsourcing services to such companies as Tencent and Ubisoft.​

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Though lucrative, commercial work has taken its toll and today he is actively working on repairing his relationship with music by creating evocative original work and mentoring a new generation as a professor at Berklee College of Music.