Contact
Xenia Groh-Huxh@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594 -224
Katrin Matzke-Baazougkm@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594 -213
General Management
Together with the Mozarteum Orchestra, Lin Liao has recorded three works by Hans Werner Henze that are closely related to Mozart and Salzburg.
Jean Sibelius, Pelléas et Mélisande op. 46
Missy Mazzoli, Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
Gustav Mahler, Rückert-Lieder
Fleur Barron, soprano
Philharmonie Zuidnederland
Lin Liao, conductor
Works by Jacob Mühlrad
Malmö Symphony Orchestra
Jacob Mühlrad, composition
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Overture to «Die Entführung aus dem Serail», K. 384
Péter Eötvös, Dialog mit Mozart
Antonín Dvořák, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 53
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385
Isabelle Faust, violin
Musikkollegium Winterthur
Lin Liao (…) presented a poised, focused presence at the podium, ramrod straight, without a baton, coaxing a wide range of colors, musical shapes, and feelings from the orchestra. Bachtrack, March 2021
The Germany-based Taiwanese conductor Lin Liao presents repertoire ranging from classical to modern with a distinctive sense of sound and a gift for dramaturgical design. Her work is characterised by a great openness to new art forms and a wide range of experience with cross-disciplinary programmes and projects.
In the current season, Lin Liao made her debut with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and others. She also leads several ensemble projects with the Klangforum Wien, the Ensemble intercontemporain and the Ensemble Ascolta, among others. In Aarhus and Copenhagen, she premieres the new opera The Girl with the Hurricane Brain by Laura Bowler, directed by Jude Christian.
A highlight of the past seasons was her performance on the occasion of Philippe Manoury's 70th birthday. She performed his monumental spatial sound composition Ring at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Orchestre de Paris. Furthermore, Lin Liao conducted concerts and productions with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Festivalorchester of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. In addition, she conceived and developed a multimedia realisation of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Tierkreis with members of the WDR Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with ensembles such as the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, the Ensemble Contrechamps, the Norbotten NEO Chamber Ensemble, the Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble intercontemporain and the Ensemble Ulysses.
Lin Liao has a special relationship with the Lucerne Festival Academy, conducting them in performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen (2007) and Inori (2018), among others. On the 70th anniversary of the premiere of Pierre Boulez's Polyphonie X, Lin Liao conducted the first revival of the work, which Boulez withdrew after its premiere, in Lucerne at the invitation of Wolfgang Rihm. She is also a regular guest at renowned festivals such as the Ultraschall Festival Berlin, ManiFeste and Présences in Paris, Musica in Strasbourg, and the Klangspuren in Schwaz.
In the field of symphonic music, Lin Liao has conducted the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra. She is also regularly involved in education projects at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, among others.
She developed her versatile musical theatre repertoire most recently as 1st Kapellmeister at the Schleswig-Holstein Landestheater and previously in engagements in Chemnitz and Wittenberg and as a guest at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Vienna Operntheater and the Krefeld/Mönchengladbach Theatre. Among others, she conducted Tiefland, Hansel and Gretel, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Madame Butterfly, La Cenerentola, La Traviata, Don Carlos, and Die Fledermaus. In 2008 Lin Liao conducted the world premiere of Chang-Fa Yiu's opera The Peach Blossom Fan in Taipei, featuring a vocal and instrumental ensemble from the Beijing Opera and a Western symphony orchestra. In 2013, she premiered the chamber opera Out at S.E.A., a collaborative composition by six young composers, in Budapest, with further performances in Milan, Paris, Brussels and Krakow.
From 2020-22 Lin Liao has been realising her passion for promoting young talent through her teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig. Previously, she directed the Weiwuying Academy within the Contemporary Music Platform at the new National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts Taiwan, which aims to promote talented Taiwanese musicians in the field of contemporary music.
Lin Liao studied composition and piano at the Taipei National University of the Arts and subsequently completed her conducting studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with distinction. She received further artistic inspiration from master classes with Bernhard Haitink and Leif Segerstam, among others. Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös recognised the young conductor's qualities early on and entrusted Lin Liao with conducting Stockhausen's groups at the Lucerne Festival in 2007. Since then, she enjoyed an intensive collaboration with Peter Eötvös, who invited her to several engagements including the Holland Festival in 2009, where she assisted him in the performance of the complete works of Edgar Varèse and led rehearsals with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ensemble Asko|Schönberg.
2023/24 Season
Conducted with great skill by the excellent Lin Liao, the members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, backed up by extra musicians, unleashed a flood of mirific sounds.
CLASSIQUE D’AUJOURD’HUI, Bruno Serrou, 10.06.2024 - about the performance at ManiFeste 2024
[Lin Liao] takes the helm in The girl with the hurricane brain, where she surprises the audience like thunder and lightning and forces the musicians of the Lydenskab to a rigor worthy of Michael Schönwandt.
SCENEBLOG, Casper Koeller, 22.8.2024 - about the performance of the opera The Girl with the Hurricane Brain at the Teater Sort/Hvid Copenhagen
"A conductor with a special charisma (...) virtuoso conducting technique (…) tensed to the point of dance-like. (...) precisely placed dynamic and rhythmic signs, even into rigorous sound attacks. In this way she achieves performances of clarity and emotional impact. (...) a tour de force of orchestral and conducting proficiency."
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG ONLINE, Wolfgang Schreiber, 18.1.2024 – about the opening concert of Ultraschall Berlin – Festival für neue Musik 2024
"The finale of the evening was Lucia Dlugoszewski's Fire Fragile Flight, in which Lin Liao at the conductor's podium once again had the Klangforum rummage through a collection of gestural sounds with virtuosic dedication and at times almost slapstick-like acrobatics."
DIE PRESSE, Walter Weidringer, 24.10.2023
“Under the direction of conductor Lin Liao, [the musicians] find a style that is both precise and always flexible, which manages both to develop Manoury's great work and to refocus it in its liveliest moments.”
AltaMusica, Vincent Guillemin, 15.6.2022
“Lin Liao, a student of Péter Eötvös and well versed conductor of contemporary repertoire, leads the orchestra with candour and flexibility, in perfect symbiosis with Ircam electronics skilfully conceived and balanced by Carlo Laurenzi and Robin Meier.”
ConcertClassic, Pierre René Sema, 14.6.2022
"The way Lin Liao coordinates and balances the instrumental ensembles is a masterstroke. The members of the Orchestre de Paris (...) give Manoury's Ring an unprecedented splendour, marked by radiant sonorities and tireless commitment."
RESMUSICA.COM, Michèle Tosi, 10/6/2022
"The Ensemble Modern performed all of these pieces with dazzling animation, under the direction of the Taiwanese conductor Lin Liao, who has an overview of the structural whole. Throughout, the works were formally concise and captivating for their inner consistency."
FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU, Stefan Michalzik, 27/3/2022
"Lin Liao (…) presented a poised, focused presence at the podium, ramrod straight, without a baton, coaxing a wide range of colors, musical shapes, and feelings from the orchestra."
BACHTRACK.COM, Linda Holt, 14/3/2021
"The formidable, international twelve-piece ensemble of Lucerne Festival Alumni under the sovereign direction of Lin Liao, a native of Taiwan who lives in Germany, set the standard of interpretation here that made this atmospherically dense composition shine with characteristic instrumental colours."
NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG, Jürg Huber, 8/9/2016
Sofia Avramidou, Mikel Urquiza, Enno Poppe, Roque Rivas; Ensemble ULYSSES, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Next; Festival ManiFeste 2023
Helmut Lachenmann: "Notturno", WDR Sinfonieorchester
Iannis Xenakis: "ST/48-1,240162", Basel Sinfonietta
Rebecca Saunders: "Traces", Basel Sinfonietta
Lin Liao, Ziyu He, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg
Berlin Classics, 0303021BC, 2024
Lin Liao, Isang Enders, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Berlin Classics/Edel 0302768BC, 2022
KAIROS 0015101KAI
April 2022
Lin Liao, Michael Pelzel, Ensemble Ascolta
WDR 3 KulturForumWitten, 2021
Lin Liao, Anna Korsun, Ensemble Modern
WDR 3 KulturForumWitten, 2020
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Lin Liao
Grammont Sélection, Lucerne Festival, 2016