Taiwanese soprano Li Keng will make her role debut as Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin in her native Taiwan in autumn 2025, conducted by Wen-Pin Chien. She has previously appeared there as Manon in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz and Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo. In summer 2023, she made her highly successful debut in the title role in Verdi’s Aida at the Oper Burg Gars Festival.
In the 2021/22 season, she impressed as Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen under Paolo Carignani and with Verdi’s Requiem with the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester under Johannes Wildner. Also in 2021, she made her debut as Violetta Valéry in La Traviata and performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She made her German debut as Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Wuppertal Opera under the musical direction of Julia Jones.
Engagements for her planned role debut as Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani at the Lithuanian National Opera in Vilnius, concerts with Verdi’s Requiem in Indonesia, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem in Taipei, and as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly at the Royal Danish Opera had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
In previous years, Li Keng has appeared as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Zibo Grand Theatre in China, as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera in Orvieto (Italy), as Aida in Garlasco (northern Italy), as Cio-Cio-San at the National Opera in Bucharest and at the theatres in Besostria and Pavia. Other roles in her repertoire include Mozart’s Countess Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro), sung in Formello near Rome, as well as Verdi’s Leonora (Il trovatore) at the Teatro Greco and Beethoven’s Leonore (Fidelio) at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory during her studies in Rome.
Li Keng has won numerous international singing competitions: in 2018, she won first prize at the International Dvořák Competition in Karlovy Vary and at the Ningbo International Singing Competition in China. In 2016, she received third prize at the renowned 54th Concorso Internazionale “Voci Verdiane” in Busseto. She won further first prizes in 2015 at the Valsesia Musica International Opera Competition, the Jakub Pustina Competition in the Czech Republic and the Concorso Benvenuto Franci in Italy. In 2013, she received an engagement through the Marcello Giordani Competition in Sicily. She has also been awarded the Taiwan Chi-Mei Art Prize twice and won second prize at the Mondial Chinese Vocalist Concours in Taipei in 2008.
Li Keng is also in demand internationally as a concert singer: she sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Teatro Bellini under Xu Zhong and on tour with the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese. She performed Verdi’s Requiem at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, where she also presented her own recital in 2017.
Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Li Keng first completed her vocal studies in her home country and received the prestigious Chi-Mei Arts Scholarship. She then continued her training at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, where she now lives.
08/2025
