After nearly a year's search, the management of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has finally announced the appointment of a Music Director Designate. It's the 55-year-old German conductor Martin Fischer-Dieskau.
This is a major coup for the TSO, sometimes perceived these days as the little sister of the bigger National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), even though its budget is said to be the larger.
Ever since Felix Chen Chiu-sen (陳秋盛) resigned after two decades as Music Director in extremely controversial circumstances in 2003, the TSO has often appeared to lack direction, in contrast to the ever-increasing repute of the NSO under Chien Wen-pin (簡文彬). This new appointment, however, could alter things dramatically.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE TSO
It should be remembered that the TSO was once the leading Taiwanese orchestra, mounting twice-yearly opera productions at the National Theater - a role that abruptly ended with Chen's tragic departure.
Martin Fischer-Dieskau, son of the famous baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and cellist Irmgard Poppen, has already announced that his aim is to transform the TSO into a first-tier orchestra that can take its place on the international stage. This will be no easy task, you might think, after its four years in the relative doldrums.
But Fischer-Dieskau has a record of tough decision-making, notably during his tenure as Artistic Director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada from 2001 to 2003. There he was engaged in a prolonged dispute with the orchestra's administrators that culminated in the mass resignation of the board of management.
The appointment comes hot on the heels of the NSO's announcement that Gunther Herbig will be its Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor for the 2008 to 2010 seasons.
Both orchestras, it would appear, are testing the waters with caution. But at the same time, both have made strong and courageous decisions, selecting high-profile figures from the international music scene. With the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra having appointed yet another German conductor, Gernot Schmalfuss, as its director, the stage appears to be set for a contest of the Titans, with the Taiwan classical music scene for the time being dominated by German-speaking music directors with, you can be sure, very high musical standards. This can only benefit the already highly accomplished professional music scene here.
Martin Fischer-Dieskau will conduct four concerts and one opera for the TSO this year, and in addition help with future planning. If all goes well he will be appointed Music Director from the beginning of 2009.
Anyone who has been to Alishan (阿里山) is familiar with the railroad there: one line comes up from Chiayi City past the sacred tree site, while another line goes up to the sunrise viewing platform at Zhushan (祝山). Of course, as a center of logging operations for over 60 years, Alishan did have more rail lines in the past. Are any of these still around? Are they easily accessible? Are they worth visiting? The answer to all three of these questions is emphatically: Yes! One of these lines ran from Alishan all the way up to the base of Jade Mountain. Its
The entire saga involving the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and its Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) continues to produce plot twists at such a rapid pace that fiction publishers would throw it out for being ridiculously improbable. This past week was particularly bizarre, but surprisingly the press has almost entirely ignored a big story that could have serious national security implications and instead focused on a series of salacious bombshell allegations. Ko is currently being held incommunicado by prosecutors while several criminal investigations are ongoing on allegations of bribery and stealing campaign funds. This last week for reasons unknown Ko completely shaved
The only geopolitical certainty is that massive change is coming. Three macro trends are only just starting to accelerate, forming a very disruptive background to an already unsettled future. One is that technological transformations exponentially more consequential and rapid than anything prior are in their infancy, and will play out like several simultaneous industrial revolutions. ROBOT REVOLUTION It is still early days, but impacts are starting to be felt. Just yesterday, this line appeared in an article: “To meet demands at Foxconn, factory planners are building physical AI-powered robotic factories with Omniverse and NVIDIA AI.” In other words, they used AI
Nov. 25 to Dec. 1 The Dutch had a choice: join the indigenous Siraya of Sinkan Village (in today’s Tainan) on a headhunting mission or risk losing them as believers. Missionaries George Candidus and Robert Junius relayed their request to the Dutch governor, emphasizing that if they aided the Sinkan, the news would spread and more local inhabitants would be willing to embrace Christianity. Led by Nicolaes Couckebacker, chief factor of the trading post in Formosa, the party set out in December 1630 south toward the Makatao village of Tampsui (by today’s Gaoping River in Pingtung County), whose warriors had taken the
RSS