The Taiwanese conductor Lin Liao, who lives in Germany, conducts repertoire ranging from classical to modern with a distinctive sense of sound and dramaturgical creativity. Her work is characterised by a great openness to new art forms and a wide range of experience with interdisciplinary programmes and projects.

Lin Liao conducted the opening concert of the Stuttgart State Opera at the start of the 2024/25 season, marking her first time at the helm of the Stuttgart State Orchestra. Further debuts in the course of the season will follow with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur and the Philharmonie Zuidnederland, among others.

A highlight of recent seasons was Lin Liao's conducting 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. She has also conducted concerts and productions with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Festival Orchestra of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the WDR Symphony Orchestra, with whose members she worked on a multimedia realisation of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Tierkreis.

Lin Liao has a special relationship with the Lucerne Festival Academy, which she conducted in performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen (2007) and Inori (2018), among others. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the premiere of Pierre Boulez' Polyphonie X, Lin Liao conducted the first revival of the work, which Boulez withdrew after the 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 in Paris, Musica in Strasbourg and Klangspuren in Schwaz.

In the field of symphonic music, Lin Liao has performed with 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, among others. She is also regularly involved in education projects, including at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. She has conducted ensembles including the Klangforum Wien, the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, the Ensemble Contrechamps, the Norbotten NEO chamber ensemble, the Ensemble Modern and the Ensemble intercontemporain.

She most recently developed her versatile music theatre repertoire as 1st Kapellmeister at the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater and previously in engagements in Chemnitz and Wittenberg as well as a guest at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Vienna Opera Theatre and the Krefeld/Mönchengladbach Theatre. Among others, she has 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, with a vocal and instrumental ensemble from the Peking Opera and a Western symphony orchestra. This was followed in 2013 by the world premiere of the chamber opera Out at S.E.A. in Budapest - a joint composition by six young composers - with further performances in Milan, Paris, Brussels and Krakow. In summer 2024, she premiered the new opera The Girl with the Hurricane Brain by Laura Bowler, directed by Jude Christian, in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

Lin Liao realised her passion for promoting young talent from 2020-22 while teaching at the University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig. Previously, she headed the Weiwuying Academy within the Contemporary Music Platform at the new National Kaohsiung Centre 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 then completed her conducting studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with honours. She received further artistic impulses at masterclasses 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 worked closely with Peter Eötvös, who invited her to the Holland Festival in 2009, where she assisted him in the performance of Edgar Varèse's complete works and conducted rehearsals with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ensemble Asko|Schönberg.