Lin Liao

The Taiwanese conductor Lin Liao studied composition and piano at the National University of the Arts in Taipei and conducting at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Pierre Boulez was an important mentor, and she took his master class in conducting as part of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY in 2007; he then chose her to co-conduct Stockhausen’s GRUPPEN. Lin Liao also became acquainted at that time with Peter Eötvös, who subsequently engaged her as his assistant for concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, additionally inviting her to the Holland Festival in 2009. Contemporary music is a focus of her work, whether as Chief Conductor of the Ensemble Laboratorium or as a guest conductor with the Ensemble Modern, the Collegium Novum Zürich, the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, and the Ensemble Aventure, as well as at the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin, the ManiFeste in Paris, and the Klangspuren Schwaz. As First Kapellmeisterin at the Schleswig-Holstein Landestheater, Lin Liao has moreover developed a wide-ranging music theater repertoire. Operatic credits include the Chemnitz Opera House, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and the municipal theaters of Krefeld-Mönchengladbach, where she has conducted such works as d’Albert’s Tiefland, Mozart’s Entführung, and Verdi’s La traviata. She also feels a commitment to Taiwanese composers and led the world premiere of Chang-Fa Yiu’s opera The Peach Blossom Fan at the National Theater of Taipei with an ensemble of Peking Opera players and a Western symphony orchestra. In the concert hall, Lin Liao has led the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, and the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. She has been involved in several educational projects with the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 1 September 2007, as one of the three conductors for a performance of Stockhausen’s GRUPPEN with the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY.

July 2018