Background
Zhang Liping was born in Wuhan, Hubei (about 650 miles south-west of Beijing) and is the daughter of a classical musician and a dancer. She studied to be a dancer for five years, before entering the Wuhan Conservatoire to study voice. She continued her studies at the Beijing Conservatory where, as a young student, she was selected to sing with Plácido Domingo in Tian'anmen Square. She then moved to Vancouver to study with Canadian mezzo-soprano Phyllis Mailing at the Vancouver Academy of Music. She later joined Vancouver Opera's Young Artist Program and sang throughout Canada in roles such as Mimi (La bohème), Leila (Les pêcheurs de perles), Liu (Turandot), Marguerite (Faust) and Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor). In 1997, she moved to London.
Zhang has sung Lucia Ashton with the Royal Opera Covent Garden and the Deutsche Oper Berlin and also Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Den Norske Opera and the Teatro Regio di Parma.
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