Liao Zilan

Who is Liao Zilan?

Liao Zilan is an international concert circuit performer on the guzheng. She has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, and has toured Spain, Italy, France, Holland, Finland, United States, and Australia. She also participated at the WOMAD Recording Week in Bath, Somerset.

Liao began to learn the guzheng at the age of three, when she lived in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. By the age of nine, she was winning prizes in China, including the prestigious National Youth Music Competition award. She left China with her family in 1983 for the United Kingdom, where she continued her music studies at the famous Chetham's School of Music in Manchester and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In addition to the guzheng, she also specializes in the Western concert harp and Chinese traditional dance.

Apart from playing traditional music and works written by Chinese composers, Liao also has had composers outside China write music for her, which has widened her repertoire from classical to contemporary and electronic music. She has collaborated with Peter Gabriel and Nigel Kennedy, and worked with African, Indian, and European musicians in the Elekoto Ensemble of Akin Euba. Her collaborative work with other world artists was released in 1995 on Real World Records's A Week or Two in the Real World various artists CD.