廖琳妮出生於台北，自幼學習鋼琴，畢業於國立臺灣師範大學音樂系作曲組，2001 年赴法國繼續學習作曲與音樂學。器樂作曲從國中始先後受教於陳玫琪，呂文慈和曾興魁老師，赴法後跟隨Yoshihisa Taira、Allain Gaussin 與 Philippe Leroux，電子音樂作曲則師事 Philippe Leroux 與 Gilles Racot。

 

她的音樂長期受到光影聯覺（synesthesia light–sound）的影響，並逐漸發展出對聽覺與視覺、肢體與呼吸、空間與時間之間關係的持續探索。對她而言，聲音無法與產生聲音的身體分開，也無法離開聲音發生的空間、光線與時間。她特別關注每一位演奏家不同的呼吸方式、肢體特質與對時間的感知，並試圖讓這些差異直接進入作品的書寫。 在近年的創作中，聲音、動作、光與影之間的關係，並非附加於音樂之上的舞臺效果，，而是屬於音樂創作中的每一個基本元素。例如在近一個小時的作品 Natures 中，演奏家的動作和位置、光影與燈光，共同形塑完整的音樂作品。她所關心的，並不是將不同藝術形式彼此疊加，而是觀察它們如何原本就存在於同一個感知經驗之中。

 

她曾形容自己的音樂如同「將家的門打開，大家自由進入、一同分享」。作品因此保留一定的空間，讓演奏家、另一種藝術、一個場所或某個偶然的情境進入其中。同一首作品放在不同的場域，往往也會產生新的聆聽經驗與感知。對她而言，音樂是自然萬物中的一個元素，並不試圖凌駕於環境之上，而是在適當的時間與條件中，與其他存在共同生活。

 

這樣的創作思想也延伸至她的音樂學研究。廖琳妮於 2011 年取得巴黎索邦大學音樂學博士學位，研究長期圍繞當代音樂分析、文化身分與文化傳承、演奏姿態與當代創作之間的關係展開。研究並不是獨立於作曲之外的另一項工作：對樂器聲學的觀察、對演奏姿態的研究、對聲音形態與文化記憶的分析，都持續回到她的音樂書寫之中；而創作過程中產生的問題，也不斷開啟新的研究方向。

 

她曾主持« 王瀅絜二胡當代作品的長期研究與創作計畫 »(2012-2017)，並自 2019 年起策劃與主持 sheng ! 笙- 研究與創作計畫 (2019-2027)，結合音樂學、民族音樂學、聲學、樂器學、作曲、演奏與科技研究，結合演奏家以及歐洲與亞洲十多所大學、研究中心與音樂機構。

 

這也構成她作為 TPMC（Tout Pour la Musique Contemporaine）藝術總監長期進行音樂策展的方式。對她而言，策展並不是創作之外的行政工作，而是建立一個可以讓不同的人、知識與實踐相遇的空間。從最初的研究、實驗與討論，到駐村、委託創作、製作、首演與後續演出和推廣，這些過程本身也是創作的一部分。

 

她的作品於法國 France Musique 及歐洲國家電台播出，並由歐洲、南美與亞洲多個當代樂團及獨奏家演出；樂譜由巴黎 Maison ONA 出版。首張個人音樂專輯 Bagatelles 由德國 NEOS 發行，獲法國《世界報》（Le Monde）專文選介，並入選法國 Charles Cros 2024 年度當代音樂選輯。

 

在作曲、研究與音樂策展之間，廖琳妮持續思考的其實始終是同一個問題：聲音如何在身體、空間、時間與他者之間存在。 她並不試圖把生命搬上舞臺，而是希望聆聽 - 在生命之中，那些早已是音樂的各種人事物。

​

For Lin-Ni Liao,

composing begins less with the invention of material than with a way of listening to what is already there: a breath, a vibration, light falling on a body, the shadow of a gesture, the resonance of a place, the singularity of a human being. Her music grows out of this attention to minute phenomena and to the relationships that run through them. Sound is never separated from the body that produces it, from the time in which it appears, or from the space that transforms it.

 

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, and trained in piano from an early age, she studied composition at National Taiwan Normal University before continuing her studies in France with Yoshihisa Taira, Allain Gaussin, and Philippe Leroux. In parallel, she developed musicological research exploring the relationships between musical language, perception, cultural heritage, and contemporary creation. She holds a PhD in musicology from Paris-Sorbonne University, under the supervision of Marc Battier, and is currently an associate researcher at IReMus (Institut de recherche en musicologie — CNRS, Sorbonne Université, French Ministry of Culture, BnF).

 

For her, however, research is not a territory separate from composition. Observing the morphology of a sound, understanding the acoustic functioning of an instrument, studying an instrumental gesture, or listening to the way a performer breathes and inhabits time are all ways of entering into musical writing. Her research directly nourishes her music; conversely, questions arising from composition open up new fields of investigation.

 

This relationship runs through her instrumental, electroacoustic, and mixed works, in which breath, timbre, gesture, light, shadow, and space become increasingly inseparable. In "Natures", an approximately one-hour work for five instrumentalists, electronics, gestures, shadows, and light, these elements are no longer conceived as dimensions added to the music: they belong to the musical writing itself. The performers’ movements, the shadows they create, distances, orientations, and transformations of light all participate in the perception of musical time and in a form of pluritemporality.

 

Her music nevertheless remains attached to a certain simplicity. Lin-Ni Liao often describes her works as an “open door”: a space into which others may enter, where a performer, a place, another art form, or a particular circumstance can transform the perception of what has been written. The same piece can therefore take on a different face depending on where it resonates. This openness to what may occur reflects a broader approach to creation: not to stage life, but to listen to what, within life itself, is already music.

 

This way of thinking also informs her work as a musicologist and artistic director. Founder and artistic director of Tout Pour la Musique Contemporaine (TPMC), she has conceived projects for more than fifteen years that bring together composers, performers, researchers, acousticians, engineers, universities, and cultural institutions. She does not consider programming to be an activity external to creation, but rather the patient construction of conditions that allow an idea, a research process, or a repertoire to exist over time.

 

Projects such as "Erhu New Contemporary Repertoire" (2012–2017) and later "sheng! L’orgue à bouche" (2019–2027) emerged from this approach. They combine organological and acoustic research, knowledge transmission, experimentation with performers, commissions of new works, and international performance and dissemination. The aim is not only to produce new works, but to understand how an instrument, a practice, and a memory can continue to transform through contact with other cultures, technologies, and ways of listening.
 

Her scores have been performed in Europe, Latin America, and Asia by numerous ensembles and soloists, and are published by Maison ONA in Paris. Her first monographic album, Bagatelles, released by NEOS, brings together part of this artistic journey, in which small forms can contain much broader temporalities.

 

Through composition, research, and the projects she initiates, Lin-Ni Liao ultimately continues to pursue the same question: how can one create a music capable of inhabiting the world without seeking to dominate it?

 

A music that can live among others — beings, sounds, spaces, memories, and circumstances — and that, within the infinitesimal scale of a gesture or an instant, allows a larger multiplicity to emerge.