Wan-Yen Li was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She has earned a distinguished reputation as a soloist, art song pianist, accompanist, teacher, and individual coach.
She holds a lectureship at the Saarbrücken Conservatory of Music (HfM Saarbrücken), where she teaches art song and opera interpretation. She also works as a piano accompanist with numerous choirs, and has held a lectureship in several singing classes at the Cologne Conservatory of Music and Dance (HfMT Köln) since 2024. As a piano accompanist, she has worked with numerous choirs in Taiwan and Germany, including the WDR Radio Choir and the Philharmonic Choirs of Cologne and Bonn. She is also the resident choir accompanist at the Theater Aachen.
She has performed concerts in New York, Paris, London, Leeds, Basel, Montepulciano, Tokyo and Taipei, as well as in numerous locations in Germany such as Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Alte Rathaus Bonn, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Alte Aula der Universität Heidelberg and Boulez Saal Berlin. In 2025, she performed Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with the Frankfurt Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK Frankfurt) Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim.
As a scholarship holder at several festivals, she was invited to the Heidelberger Frühling Lied Academy in Germany, the LIEDBasel Academy in Switzerland, the Carnegie Hall SongStudio in New York, and the Leeds Song Festival Young Artists Programme in the UK. Furthermore, she was selected for the 2026 Campus Lied et Mélodie programme by the French Royaumont Foundation.
She received important impulses through her collaboration with artists such as Thomas Hampson and Susan Manoff as well as through masterclasses led by James Baillieu, Roger Vignoles, Sheila Arnold, Anthony Spiri, Anne le Bozec, Javier Arrebola, Bryan Wagorn, Christoph Prégardien, Bernarda Fink, Patricia Petibon, Ruth Ziesak and others.
Since 2025, she has also been the pianist in the Trio Rhenia (violin, horn and piano). As well as performing at venues such as the Duisburg Theatre and the Bechstein Centre in Düsseldorf, this chamber ensemble is committed to promoting and exploring relevant repertoire.
After completing a bachelor's degree in Taiwan, she went on to earn three master's degrees in Germany: one in lied interpretation under Prof. Ulrich Eisenlohr, one in contemporary piano music under Prof. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and one in solo piano under Prof. Florian Hölscher. She earned her Konzertexamen degree in Lied Interpretation under Prof. Stefan Irmer.