Taipei Chinese Orchestra

In early March of this year, Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO) announced that the performances in March and April and the tickets sales In early March of this year, Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO) announced that the performances in March and April and the tickets sales for performances in May and June have been fully suspended in response to the epidemic prevention of COVID-19.

Our work in TCO is still ongoing in spite of the suspension of performances. TCO has successively launched online teaching courses, TCO Classroom, setting a record for the first episode which was watched by 10,000 people.

On March 21st, we dispatched all resources in the shortest time and cooperated with Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd to hold an online live concert Craving for the Spring Wind (Wang Chun Feng) on YouTube. During the preparation, we used the highest epidemic prevention standards to protect the musicians and rehearsed in a split-flow and time-sharing way. All musicians wore masks in the whole process and sat apart from each other by more than one meter; moreover, special-made transparent acrylic panels were located in front of wind instruments to ensure complete protection. The efforts we made have not only received enthusiastic responses, but also stimulated TCO’s thinking about the future.

Online concerts have been held abroad for many years. Craving for the Spring Wind (Wang Chun Feng) was not the first online concert held by TCO but there was no audience in front for the first time.

It was lonely for musicians when no audience attended the performance, but they benefited from the immediacy of the internet to instantly review all messages sent by the fans after the performance. At the same time, it was indeed a new challenge for TCO to learn the shooting techniques for live broadcasting as well as providing video and audio output with quality and fluency. As a pioneer, we have created a new mode of art performance in a crisis.

We expect to make TCO Classroom a weekly program after April and the preparation for other online concerts is still under discussion. Our fans can pay close attention to the information of performances on TCO’s official website and Facebook. All new and old friends of TCO are enthusiastically invited to join the chatroom while watching the performances online. You can express comments on performances and give blessings to our society.

At this moment of hardship in our country, our bodies should be kept at a safe distance but our minds and souls should not be isolated by fear. We hope to help maintain a warm and good society with our efforts, and this is musicians’ social responsibility which is inevitable and necessary.

01 Comfort the Mind and Restore Well-Being
02 Waiting for Jin-Lian Crossing the Boundary—Boundary+ & When the Lotus Blooms
03 The Pursuit of Pure Beauty is a Seriously Self Underestimated Requirement
04 Listen Through the Body, Communicate Through Music—​Percussionist Evelyn GLENNIE
05 Battle Against COVID-19 Epidemic by Performing Arts Communities
06 A Note on the Chinese Traditional Music Class of Jian Cheng Junior High School in the second year