Lin Liao

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 makes 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. For the opera festivals in Aarhus and Copenhagen, she premieres the new opera Girl with a Hurricane Brain by Laura Bowler, directed by Katie Mitchell.

A highlight of the past year 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 has 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