Features

Striding Forth to New Horizons--TCO Presents a Star-studded Traditional Arts Festival

Text by Chao Ching-yu (senior journalist)
Taipei Chinese Orchestra’s continuance in pioneering new trends and new developments for Chinese music makes the organization impossible to be sidelined. Under the flag of composer and conductor, Chung Yiu-kwong, the Orchestra has built a contemporary and innovative reputation in the Chinese music scene of the new century. In the new year, TCO strides forth steadily with its strong classics as well as showcasing its exuberance in its Traditional Arts Festival.

From the roster of this year’s Traditional Arts Festival, one cannot miss the star-studded list from both international and local artistry, comprising Oscar-winner Zhao Jiping in Master of Film Score, while Cantonese vocalist Susanna Kwan takes the audience back on a nostalgic concert of old films, Pearl of the Orient. We can expect to see exciting tributes to maestros in this season with Erhu master Xiao Bai-yong’s solo recital in tribute to the legendary Blind Ah-Bing; famed cultural scholar Lin Ku-fang hopes to inspire new generation musicians by commemorating bamboo flutist Xunga Yu in a special production, Xunfa Yu Tribute Concert. At TCO’s invitation, Chinese composer Chou Wen-chung will arrive in Taiwan as the Orchestra’s guest composer, and lead young composers from Taiwan, China, Japan, USA and Switzerland in new chamber creations. In this edition of the Traditional Arts Festival, expect no less than the most beautiful music.

Moviemaker Zhang Yi-mou and composer Zhao Ji-ping are the most symbolic pair in Chinese film history. Zhao’s movie scores prove mesmerizing in its simple yet haunting melodies that films long for to make a lasting impression. This year, Zhao brings to TCO an array of familiar cinematic tunes: Festival Overture, The Grand Mansion Gate, Yellow Earth, The True Hearted, The Story of Qiao Family, Raise the Red Lantern and Water Margin. Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s Music Director Tsung Yeh will conduct the concert.

The Pact between Min Hui-fen and Taiwanese fans
Praised by the French press as “full of music even in the pause,” Min Hui-fen interprets the most sorrowful pain as well as the most expressive tune and most variable style. Skillful, passionate for art, her music touches the audience afore the melody. In the battle with her disease, her desire to return to the stage had supported her fight. Coming out of the battle a winning warrior, Min Hui-fen is a winning musician as ever. This time she will play with several erhu players including her pupils and also her son, Qu Liu, as conductor.

West Meets East

Legendary percussionist Evelyn Glennie
This year, TCO continues to collaborate with exceptional western musicians. An old friend of TCO, legendary percussionist Evelyn Glennie is once again invited back for a concert with the Orchestra in A Passionate Drumbeat, with a program to include works by Kuo Wen-jing, Chung Yiu-kwong and Tan Dun’s Yellow Earth. This friendship has inked memorable testament in contemporary music collaborations.?? ?

Percussion artists head on to Zhongshan Hall
Taipei Chinese Orchestra reveals its own treasures in the new season, as erhu virtuoso Wang Ying-chieh presents her solo recital, All is Dream. A new work by Taiwanese composer Liao Lin-ni, Le train de la vie III-WE, explores new sounds and unique dialogues between erhu and electronic music.

Seahorse Music will present the first of a series in tribute to mother earth, “Na A Na A~Shen Qu Village.” The musical group creates an ambiance taking the fans into a mind-journey to the sacred forests in “Shen Qu Village.”

Tainan City Traditional Orchestra also has Taiwanese music on their program at Zhongshan Hall with works by Liu Wen-hsiang, Chang Xiao-feng that were inspired by Taiwanese folklores. The program presents folk tunes with a different arrangement for the erhu family and sanxian.

This season, focus is on the aesthetics of zheng. Fourth Phase Zhengclub and Enlightenment Chamber Orchestra jointly produced N.E.W.S. of Zheng Music, commissioning renowned Taiwanese composers on fresh melodies featuring zheng and western instruments.

Traditional theater shines through TCO
This season, TCO furthers its responsibilities in promoting traditional arts by honoring traditional theater in its programming. Opera Bosom Friends bring together the combined forces of the esteemed Chinese opera actor Li Bao-chun, Taipei Li-Yuan Chinese Opera Theatre, TCO, and Novel Hall. The train of names on the program bill continues to build up anticipation with Kuo Qi-hong as playwright, composer Zhu Shao-yu, and amazing actors including Yang Yan-yi, Huang Yu-lin, Chang Gui-xiang and Li Yu-hsuan.

This season, TCO invites Han-Yang Beiguan Troupe to extend the beauty of this traditionally popular art form in a performance of comedy classics in Classic Beiguan Music Theater.

Yi-shin Taiwanese Opera Troupe is on the bill this season to present stories of the famous Justice Pao in Qintian Bao Saved the Queen; while Lan-Yang Taiwanese Opera Company stages a popular court drama, Exchanging a Leopard Cat for a Prince, a mirror of society today with an old fable on survival.

Narrative and musical performance was never absent from traditional arts. This season TCO features Xiu-Qing Yang Folk Arts Troupe in a whimsical Musca Mosquito Big Battle Song that will surely make this evening an unforgettable one.

The Taipei Chinese Orchestra presents the special concert Pearl of the Orient at Taipei International Convention Center. The concert features famous vocalist Susanna Kwan in a series of television and movie themes for the generations of 70s' and 80s'. Whether they are heart-thrilling, adventurous wuxia stories, or the nostalgic songs that everybody could sing or hum, they bring back memories that occupied our youth. The ballads include Thunder in Drought , Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake, Rise Step by Step, Moon Rising in the Rosy Clouds, Prosperity Everywhere; Guanren Gu and Shenglong Ma’s Fishermen's Song of the East China Sea is among the Cantonese film medley.

The Silk Road used to be the major connection between the East and West. Taipei Chinese Orchestra collaborates with Szymanowski Quartet to give an exemplary demonstration of this intercultural dialogue. The program includes Zhao Ji-ping’s Follow the Pagoda Tree to Trace the Roots of Our Ancestors, Ravel’s Introduction et Allegro for Harp, String Quartet and Chinese Orchestra, Chung Yiu-kwong’s Beyond the Silk Road Concerto for String Quartet and Chinese Orchestra, Yong Han’s Tibet Realms-Heaven, Earth, Human, and the world premiere of a new erhu concerto commissioned by Liu Wen-jin.

An Encounter in Time performed by Jade and Artists Dance Center is from a series of “Mythology.”The dance depicts a love story with contemporary concepts in a blend of Asian movements and Western dance techniques. Accompanied by TCO, the dance drama is bound to set loose your imaginations.

• Hit: 2150
• Updated: 2012-03-20 15:16
• Reviewed: 2012-03-20 15:16


• Source: Department of Information Technology, Taipei City Government