London-based Meili Li is the first countertenor originally from China to have an international career. He is the winner of the Farinelli Prize (2016) and 2nd Prize (2022) at the London Handel Festival Singing Competition. He is also a resident artist with Royal Shakespeare Company and resident of The CounterTenor Project by Arts and Humanities Research Council. His passion lies in finding a unique perspective based on his cultural background to approach western music.

He has a wide range of repertoire from late renaissance lute songs, Baroque and Classical operas and oratorios, German and French Art Songs, to modern and contemporary works, some of which were written for him, such as song cycle Fragments of China by Karol Beffa and Orfeo by Fay Kueen Wang.

Recent roles include Licida Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade under Peter Whelan at Irish National Opera, Royal Opera House and Novel Opera Fribourg, Adone Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone under Kent Nagano at Hamburg State Opera, Orfeo Orfeo e Euridice under Peter Whelan at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, Spirito L’Orfeo at Opera Royal de Versailles under Jordi Savall and under Christopher Moulds in ROH’s production at Roundhouse, Eunuch NOS under Vladimir Jurowski at Bavarian State Opera, Oberon A Midsummer Night's Dream under Andreas Schüller at Theater Gießen, Liang Shanbo Mill’s Butterfly Lovers under Richard Mills at Victorian Opera Melbourne, Peleo Fux’s Arianna under Alfredo Bernardini at Styriarte Festival, Alcasto Von Bayreuth’s Argenore under Attilio Cremonesi at Theater Münster, and a number of Handel roles such as title role Giustino under Markellos Chryssicos at Theater an der Wien, title role Tolomeo under Stefan Vladar at Theater Lübeck, Alessandro Tolomeo under Federico Maria Sardelli in International Handel Festival Karlsruhe, title role Fernando under Leo Duarte in London Handel Festival, Dardano Amadigi under Attilio Cremonesi at Meiningen State Theater.

Past and upcoming concerts in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Barbican Centre, 11 Downing Street State Room, Salle Gaveau, the Concertgebouw, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and numerous major concert halls in China.

CD releases include Variations on Choice and Longing, Fux’s Arianna with Zefiro under Alfredo Bernardini, and upcoming Giulio Cesare with The English Concert under Harry Bicket.

Li holds degrees in Film and Philosophy from Peking University, an MA and DipRAM (with Distinction) in voice from the Royal Academy of Music, where he remains one of the few students to have been awarded full marks for his final recital; and an Artist Diploma (with Distinction) in opera from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as well as fellowship of Independent Opera.