Born in
Pi County in the outskirts of
Chengdu,
Sichuan Province, Liao was trained by vocal pedagogue
Zhou Xiaoyan and tenor Luo Wei at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music from which he graduated in 1995. In 2000 Liao made his debut at the
Washington National Opera as the Count di Luna in Verdi's
Il trovatore at the
Kennedy Center with
Plácido Domingo conducting. In 2001 he portrayed Enzo in
Attila with the
Opera Orchestra of New York (OONY) at
Carnegie Hall, and was heard again with that ensemble the following year as Captain Israele in
Gaetano Donizetti's
Marino Faliero. In 2002 he sang the role of Méphistophélès in Berlioz's
La damnation de Faust with the
China Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2003 he made his debut at the
Dutch National Opera as the Japanese Prince in
Tan Dun's
Tea: A Mirror of Soul. That same year he made his debut with the
Michigan Opera Theater as the Count di Luna, and was also seen with that company as Renato in
Un ballo in maschera. In 2004 he sang the role of Pasha Seid in Verdi's
Il corsaro with the OONY and
Eve Queler conducting at Carnegie Hall. In 2005 Liao portrayed the role of Renato to
Claire Rutter's Amelia and Patrizia Patelmo's Ulrica for his debut at the
Florida Grand Opera. In 2007 he sang the title role in Verdi's
Rigoletto in Shanghai. In 2010 he was a guest soloist in the
New York Philharmonic's concert series "Concerts in the Park", performing Rossini arias with the
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. That same year he was the baritone soloist in
Carl Orff's
Carmina Burana with the
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He sang that work again in 2013 with the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra under conductor
Long Yu. Liao has been a fixture in Western opera performances at the
National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing for more than a decade. Recent appearances at that theater include Count Capulet in
Roméo et Juliette (2005), Rodrigo in
Don Carlo (2008), Giorgio Germont in
La traviata (2011), Figaro in
The Barber of Seville (2013), Count Ankarström in
Un ballo in maschera (2013), Count Almaviva in
The Marriage of Figaro (2015), and Vaskov in
Kirill Molchanov's
The Dawns Here Are Quiet (2015). He has also performed frequently at the
Shanghai Grand Theatre, including a 2013 concert with pianist
Lang Lang, and a performance at the 2015
Laureus World Sports Awards. ==References==