Silk Road Bimonthly 054
A Makeover for Chinese Music in Season 2017/18
A new season starts again! The Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO) has organized 10 series of programs for the 2017/18 season to transform the image of Chinese music and thus open up a brand-new horizon.
This season opens with a concert featuring the collaboration of the TCO and pipa player WU Man, who is also invited to be the TCO resident musician in this season. It marks the first time for the TCO as well as for any Chinese music orchestra in Taiwan to have a resident musician. It is hoped that more spectacular sparks will be brought forth by collaborating with more masters.
In this season, just like in the seasons over the past few years, the TCO tries to invite as many masters as possible to participate in our programs, aiming to create more opportunities for domestic musicians to cooperate with them, for example: LUO Xiaoci’s guzheng concert organized by LIN Gu-Fang; the concert of erhu player SUN Huang and guzheng player Renjie; the musical, The Beauty Who Ruled, presented by All U People Theater along with WANG Wei-Chung, CHANG Ta-Chuen, and Emil Wakin CHAU; as well as the TCO Traveler Series to be conducted by Taiwanese youth conductor CHANG Yu-An, who just won the first prize in the International Conducting Competition Musicales Bucharest in September last year.
It is particularly worth noting that the TCO also launches the Wuxia Hero Series this year, presenting the martial artsrelated works by Fu Tong WONG and CHEN Shu-Si. Worldrenowned violinist LIN Cho-Liang is also invited to play the universally praised violin concerto, The Butterfly Lovers. Furthermore, the TCO will collaborate with pianist Ivan LINN to challenge the concert of video games, bringing Chinese music into the world of such popular video games as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Chinese Paladins. Along with the concert featuring music in HUANG Juen-Hsiung’s puppet theaters in the Living National Treasure series, this season will surely transform the image of traditional music.
Yes, Chinese music is traditional, but it can also be NOT so traditional! Let’s jointly experience the makeover of Chinese music in the new season!