Taipei Chinese Orchestra

As the saying goes in France,“the mission of artists is to create sunshine when there is none.”Since 2020, the pandemic has seemed to block all the sunshine. People avoid gathering and keep  their doors closed. In this dark age, however, Taiwan’s Chinese Music community and academia have cooperated with each other to build a collaboration platform for common prosperity and common good, seeking to create sunshine in the future.
Taiwan has been engaged in professional Chinese music education for over 50 years but now the new generation of musicians needs more stage training. At this moment, the public orchestras have a responsibility to create opportunities for them. Who Will Take Over — The Star Project for Young Musicians of Chinese Music is the best such collaborative platform. This project — initiated by Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Kaohsiung Chinese Orchestra, Tainan City Traditional Orchestra, Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra, and 3 departments of Chinese music at Chinese Culture University, National Taiwan University of Arts, and Tainan National University of the Arts — began in 2020. Every year, young musicians are recommended into the platform and then invited by the orchestras to perform together during the season. It is unquestionably cultivating the future pillars of Taiwanese music community.
In 2021, the first ever season of Who Will Take Over broke down the barrier between these orchestras. Kaohsiung Chinese Orchestra, Tainan City Traditional Orchestra, and Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra each sent 1 musician to perform with Taipei Chinese Orchestra in their regular concerts. In the second season, the exchange will expand to include conductors and art administrators. This pioneering work has never been done before in Taiwan’s Chinese music community. Today, this collaboration shares resources, exchanges experiences in different venues and art festivals, and provides opportunities for growth, from the spotlight to backstage. Through this platform, outstanding students also have an opportunity to work with professional orchestras. In the future, this collaborative platform will continue create new and more diverse opportunities for collaboration between orchestras and schools.
Besides the cultivation of talented musicians, the construction of an oral history is also urgently needed. The conference Spring and Autumn of Chinese Music discussed the importance of this issue, and the column. “This Moment” from New Silk Road is dedicated to the mission of recording the people, events, and music of Taiwan’s Chinese music community, being another collaborative platform to connect orchestras and schools. In order to make this column more systematic and academic, we are considering organizing an academic workshop and training. We hope to cultivate more music professionals who can record oral history in a more rigorous and detailed manner. We have already received support from ITH Academia Sinica and Taipei City Archives, and many music history teachers have expressed their willingness to participate the workshop. We are very encouraged.
For two years we have experienced the darkness of the pandemic. But even in the darkness there are still many stars shining brightly. We believe as long as we work together, the collaborative light of Chinese music in Taiwan will grow more and more dazzling.

01 The Route to Innovation : Alternative Cooperation during the Pandemic - Building the Cross-Platform of Chinese Music
02 Cover Story : A Profound and Sentimental Art : “The Splendor of Traditional Theatrical Music” by LIN Gu-Fang and QU Chunquan
03 A Journey into Chinese Music : 2022 “Who Will Take Over — The Star Project for Young Musicians of Chinese Music”