After congratulating Taiwanese violinist Tseng Yu-chien (曾宇謙) on winning the silver medal in the violin category of the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow on Wednesday last week, Tainan’s Chimei Museum said it would continue to provide violins of excellent quality to talented individuals for free.
Tseng, 20, beat contestants from Russia, Moldova, South Korea and Germany in Taiwan’s best-ever performance in the competition, which is held every four years. Despite only securing the silver medal, Tseng was in effect the top winner in the violin category as there was no nominated candidate for the first prize.
Tseng performed using a violin loaned from the Chimei Museum, which was crafted by Italian luthier Giuseppe Guarneri between 1730 and 1734.
The museum said it was honored that one of its violins helped Tseng win the silver medal in the prestigious competition.
The museum said in a statement that over the past 10 years it has loaned items from its collection of prized violins to students competing on the international stage to not only give back to the community, but also to realize one of Chi Mei Group founder Hsu Wen-lung’s (許文龍) dreams.
The museum currently has 1,362 violins in its collection and has allowed more than 3,000 violinists to borrow more than 220 violins over the past decade, the museum said.
The museum is just a facility where the violins are kept and protected, Hsu said, adding: “If prized violins are only kept in a safe, they are nothing more than well-preserved pieces of wood.”
“We hope to continue to freely provide violins of excellent quality to talented individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford the cost of using such instruments,” the museum said in its statement.
Tseng has borrowed 14 violins from the museum since he was 11, according to the museum.
The violin used at the competition has been loaned out many times, the museum said, adding that it was loaned to violinist Hu Nai-yuan (胡乃元) in 2011 and to Tseng from 2011 to 2012, when he used it to win first prize at the Isang Yun Competition.
The museum said that Tseng’s choice of bow when he first borrowed a violin from the museum was the least expensive in the collection, adding that he is more focused on making the music he wants to and not on the name or brand affixed to his instrument.
However, the museum declined to comment on the price of the violin.
Additional reporting by CNA
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS