Natalie Luo is a music composer who has composed music for songs, movies, TV shows, commercials, and games. Many of the projects she worked on received awards such as the 2009 Dong Music Original Song Competition “Best Lyrics Comprehensive Composition Award” for the song “Lady.”
Natalie grew up in a family with a musical background. Her father was a music professor who first lit the flame of music within her. As a child, she would practice for an impressive five to six hours a day.
She later attended a university and studied classical music composition. However, she also had a heart for pop music. So, she decided to start combining the two styles to create original musical pieces.
She then began to submit her work to major songwriting and record companies. Zhang Yadong—who is a well-known music producer in China—saw the potential that Natalie had and gave her the position of his company’s exclusive songwriter.
Looking back on that moment, Natalie realized that her work was still in its infancy, but Zhang Yadong realized her potential and was willing to help her fulfill that potential.
Later on, Natalie entered the 8th Taiwan International Songwriting Competition. Her performance was a site to be seen and the largest record company in Taiwan—Huayan International—decided to bring her on as a singer.
Wanting to improve her craft, she decided to move to the U.S. to study film and music composition at the University of San Francisco. There, she also learned more about film and music production.
She started to work on many notable projects such as the independent film “The Big Liar” which won the “Best Screenplay Award” at the 7th Epidemic Film Festival in San Francisco. She also composed for the independent film “Hat Trick.”
Natalie also composed music for various games such as the game trailer “The Prince and General” which was displayed at China’s largest game and animation exhibition—China Joy.
During her time in San Francisco, she served as a judge for many major singing competitions. She also started pop music courses for those living in the Silicon Valley area. The courses greatly implement the piano in pop music as well as the “basics” such as singing and vocal recording.
Natalie is also a dancer and has worked as a dance and music teacher mainly teaching K-pop and Hip-Hop dance styles.
Since then, she has become a senior member of the California Teachers Association. She teaches music theory as well as piano lessons in a California school. She also works for Star Gate Music Productions and takes on many independent projects.
These projects are typically compositions for commercials, shows, movies, etc. She did composition work for the film “Approaching” which was broadcast on Taiwan Public TV Channel 13’s Life Drama Exhibition in March 2016.
She also worked on the production team for the album “Super VC” which won the Chinese Music Networking List—“Radio Recommended Best Combination Award” and the Chinese Music Awards 2018—“The Best Rock Album.”
Recently, she produced the theme song “Go Go Shopping” for the 2021 China International Import Expo.
One of the biggest challenges for any composer is coming up with new original pieces. To keep her creative “juices” flowing, Natalie enjoys going to museums, art exhibitions, dance competitions, and more to expand her horizons and take in different arts and cultures.
On this note, she explains: “Whenever I encounter different clients who need me to make special music, I can always find inspiration from other art forms.”
Unlike other composers, Natalie has a unique background in both classical and pop music. She also has a lot of experience blending the two styles together. As a result, she has developed her own style which has “poured” into her other pursuits such as dancing and teaching.
She sees herself as a multi-tasker who strives to not only overcome various challenges in life but to also help others overcome their challenges and reach their full musical or dance potential.
She explains that her goal is to: “surpass who I was yesterday.” She believes that as long as you constantly chase your music dreams, you will eventually get there.
Her journey has inspired many to pursue their dreams and she plans to continue to teach others how to not only pursue their musical career but excel at it.
In the future, she hopes to perform more on stage as a singer. She also wants to continue to improve her skills as a composer, producer, and singer.
All in all, Natalie Luo has accomplished much as a composer from working on feature films to music albums. Her skill and success as a composer, dancer, singer, and producer as well as her work at major record firms have resulted in a new style of classical and pop music being introduced to the world.