Singaporean conductor Lien Boon Hua champions Asian voices on the global stage. His work bridges Eastern and Western musical traditions through a repertoire spanning symphonic literature, contemporary works, Chinese orchestral music, and opera. He serves as Associate Conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra. Since founding Wayfarer Sinfonietta in 2021, Lien has established the ensemble as one of Singapore’s most adventurous musical forces.

In 2022, Lien led the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Singapore Symphony Choruses in Esplanade’s 20th anniversary gala concert, premiering a commissioned work for this landmark cultural celebration at Singapore’s national performing arts centre. Recent highlights include conducting the world premiere of A Bridge Across the Sea by Jonathan Dove, one of Britain’s most performed living composers, with Resound Collective in Singapore, and leading the closing gala concert of the 14th China–ASEAN Music Festival in Nanning with the Guangxi Symphony Orchestra, presenting premieres of new works alongside contemporary compositions by leading composers from Singapore, Thailand, and China.

Lien has conducted over 50 orchestras and ensembles in 22 countries across three continents. In Asia, he has worked with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, Bangkok Metropolitan Orchestra, and Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra. In Europe, he has conducted the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, Kraków Philharmonic, Pannon Philharmonic, and Transylvania State Philharmonic. In North America, he has appeared with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and The Syracuse Orchestra. He has performed at festivals including the Shenzhen Belt & Road International Music Festival, IntAct Festival, Thailand International Composition Festival, Gdańsk Music Festival, International Mozartiana Festival, and Singapore International Festival of Arts. His operatic work includes productions for Singapore Lyric Opera, Kuala Lumpur City Opera, The Opera People, and Lirica Arts.

Lien’s artistic development was shaped by his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (2016–2018) under Music Director Alexander Liebreich and at the Richard Strauss Festival (2018) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and through the Peter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Program (2019–2020), working closely with Peter Eötvös, Heinz Holliger, and Kaija Saariaho. Selected for prestigious programmes including the Tanglewood Music Center, the Lucerne Festival Academy, and the Mahler Conducting Fellowship at Colorado MahlerFest, Lien studied with distinguished maestros including Bernard Haitink, Paavo Järvi, and Cristian Măcelaru. His ties to the Singapore Chinese Orchestra trace back to its conducting workshops with Conductor Emeritus Tsung Yeh. He is a prize winner at the Antal Doráti International Conducting Competition (Second Prize, 2018) and the Grzegorz Fitelberg International Conducting Competition (Second Distinction, 2017).

Lien has served on the faculty of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music since 2019, where he directs the contemporary music ensemble OpusNovus and teaches conducting. Under his leadership, the ensemble has toured China and Australia. In 2024, he was appointed Visiting Lecturer of Large Ensembles at the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music, and his educational work includes engagements with the ASEAN–Russian Youth Orchestra, Rondo Festival Orchestra, and Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra, as well as lectures and conducting masterclasses in China, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Lien holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Neil Varon and received the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize, Eastman’s top conducting award. He also holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, with additional studies at the Peabody Conservatory.