Haoran Li was born in 1986 in the province of Shanxi. He started learning the piano at six and held his first public concert at the age of ten. Graduated from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and subsequently the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin (where he studied under the guidance of Professors Christian Ehwald, Alexander Vitlin and Hans-Dieter Baum). Participated in masterclasses held by Daniel Barenboim, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Neeme Järvi, Seiji Ozawa, Jorma Panula, Robert Spano, Tugan Sokhiev and Peter Eötvös. His artistic development has been inspired by renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim and Valery Gergiev.
1st-prize winner of the International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales (Bucharest, 2014), recipient of the special prize from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Audience Award at the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition (Paris, 2018), finalist of the International Competition for Young Conductors (Besançon, 2019), laureate of the Rachmaninoff International Competition for Pianists, Composers and Conductors (Moscow, 2022; 3rd prize and Bronze Medal).
In 2023 he made his debut at the Royal Danish Opera (Copenhagen). Haoran Li is a guest conductor of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini (Parma), the Romanian Radio National Orchestra (Bucharest) and a number of orchestras in China.
Has conducted the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Theater für Niedersachsen Orchester (Hildesheim), the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bucharest’s George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra among others. Collaborates with Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, conducting Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (co-production with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Sydney Opera House) and the original Chinese opera Orchid Flower. Has assisted to Christoph Eschenbach and Charles Dutoit. Has appeared at Parma’s Festival Verdi. During the 2019–20 season he served as an assistant conductor at the China Philharmonic Orchestra (Beijing). In 2024 the artist conducted the Russian National Orchestra at the Moscow Concert Hall Zaryadye.
Since 2023 Haoran Li has been Principal Conductor of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra.
He made his debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2022, standing at the helm of the Mariinsky Orchestra which performed fragments of works by Rachmaninoff; in September 2023 the artist conducted La traviata and a concert version of Ariadne auf Naxos, and in December he took part in the Mariinsky International Piano Festival, conducting works by Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Subsequently Haoran Li conducted the operas Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly, a concert performance of La favorita, concert programmes with opuses by Bach, Bottesini, Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Debussy among others, also presenting The Faint Ginkgo by Xiaogang Ye. In June 2024 he became a permanent guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Information for June 2024