Shou Ping Liu

The Taiwanese-American conductor Shou Ping Liu has enjoyed a multi-faceted career that has brought her to the major concert halls of Europe, Asia and the United States. After already finishing her doctorate, Liu completed a second Master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin in 2022. In the same year she made her Berlin debut conducting the Konzerthaus Orchester in Konzerthaus Berlin, the same hall where Leonard Bernstein conducted his famous "Freedom Concert" in 1989. Other orchestras she has conducted include the South Denmark Philharmonic, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Romania Philharmonic, Hanns Eisler Symphony Orchestra, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra, Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt, and San Francisco Philharmonic.

Throughout her conducting studies, Liu has been an avid participant in conducting festivals and competitions. She became a semi-finalist in the 8th International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest, conducting in the Romanian Athenaeum in Budapest as part of the George Enescu Festival. She recently participated in a conducting masterclass with Sir Donald Runnicles of Deutsche Oper. She has attended festivals including Oregon Bach Festival, Wintergreen Music Festival, Nordic Masterclass for Conductors, and the November Peabody Conducting Institute, in which she was one of eight active participants to work under Marin Alsop.

Liu first came to the United States to study piano performance at New England Conservatory. She discovered conducting shortly thereafter, when she embarked on an intensive independent study of the choral and orchestral repertoire with the late Robert Page. This unique apprenticeship led her to a life of conducting diverse genres of music, ranging from choral to symphonic to opera repertoire. In 2020, she completed a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree in conducting at the University of Southern California, where she studied with Jo-Michael Scheibe and Larry Livingston. Her other conducting teachers have included Christian Ehwald, Hans Dieter Baum, Victor Yampolsky, and Jorma Panula. She has previously held positions as the Music Director of Santa Monica Youth Orchestra, Assistant Conductor for Lyric Opera Theatre in Arizona, and Director of Performance at Union College in New York. Under her leadership, the Union College Choir and Orchestra traveled on several notable concert tours, including a historic concert in Carnegie Hall in March of 2022. Liu currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Connecticut College, where she directs both the Connecticut College Orchestra and Connecticut College Singers.