NING LIANG – mezzo soprano

One of the pre-eminent mezzo-sopranos on the international opera scene, Ning Liang has appeared in many of the world's leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Berlin State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Covent Garden, the Bavarian State Opera, the Semper Opera Dresden, as well as at Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Marseilles, Bologna, Helsinki, Tel Aviv, Washington, Philadelphia, and Toronto. Ms. Liang began her European career at the Hamburg and Vienna State Operas, where she sang Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Romeo in I Capuletti ed I Montecchi, Jenny in Mahagonny, and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos. She has sung Idamante in Idomeneo at La Scala, where she also performed Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She is well known for her interpretation of Suzuki in the film of  Madama Butterfly

Ms. Liang went on to debut at the Metropolitan Opera House as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, broadcast worldwide. She returned to the Met in 2007 for the world premier of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor singing the role of the Sharman. She repeated this role in the 2008 revival of the work at the Met. Her debut with San Francisco Opera in Steven Wallace’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, based on Amy Tan’s popular novel was in  2008.

Ms. Liang debuted recently with Los Angeles Opera as Emilia in a new production of Verdi’s Otello where she returned in 2008 as Suzuki.  Recent engagements have included Butterfly at Bilbao and at the Royal Albert Hall in London,  Barbiere and Cosi at the Hamburg State Opera, Alice in Wonderland at Netherlands Opera, La Forza del Destino at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Cenerentola in Norway, Hercules at Athens, Das Lied von der Erde in concert at Rouen, and at the Theatre de Ville in Paris, and in staged productions at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Reims Music Festival. She also performed Suzuki with Michigan Opera Theater, Baltimore Opera, Opera de Monte Carlo, and Toulouse. She was at the Monnaie in Brussels in 2009  as  Juno in Semele and as Mescalina in Ligeti’s  Le Grand Macabre which she later repeated over the next 2 years at the Rome Opera,  the Teatro Colon in  Buenos Aires and the Liceu in Barcelona and as Juno in Handel’s Semele.  Additionally she also appeared in 2011 with Washington Opera as Suzuki.

An artist of prolific scope, Ms. Liang has performed with great success such repertoire as Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, Arsace in Semiramide, Malcolm Groehm in La Donna del Lago, Isabella in L'Italiana in Algeri, Charlotte in Werther, Giovanna in Anna Bolena, Adalgisa in Norma, Margareta in Le Damnation de Faust, Dame Quickly in Falstaff, Nicklausse in Les Contes d'Hoffman, Siebel in Faust, Stefano in Romeo et Juliette, Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Octavia in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Sesto in Giulio Cesare, Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice, Maffio Orsina in Lucrezia Borgia, Erda in Das Rhiengold, Leonora di Gusman in La Favorita, and the title roles of Serse and Tancredi.

Ms. Liang is an active concert and recital singer and soloist, and has collaborated with Giuseppe Sinopoli, Riccardo Muti, Sir Colin Davis, Christian Thielemann, Gary Bertini, Jacques de la Cote, Eliahu Inbal, Peter Schreier, Gerd Albrecht, and James Conlon. She has appeared at such esteemed European music festivals as Wiener Festwochen, Bregenz, Savonlinna, Schleswig-Holstein, Dresden, Ludwigsburg, Bad Kissingen, Athens, and Rheingau.

Ms. Liang is a winner of the Metropolitan National Council Competition, the Luciano Pavarotti Competition, the Mirjam Helin Competition, the Musician's Emergency Competition, the Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition, and the Loren L. Zachary Competition. She holds a Masters of Music from Juilliard, and was a member of the American Opera Center. She is Professor of Vocal Studies at the Beijing Academy of Music.

Ms. Liang's solo recordings include Giacomo Meyerbeer's Melodies, and Giuseppe Verdi's Romanza e Canzonetta, and she has appeared on recording in Mahler's II and VIII Symphonies, as well as in numerous programs produced and televised on three continents.