Pluck the best Taiwanese musicians from local musical ensembles and add them to one of Japan's finest chamber music orchestras and you have the 2005 Taipei Celebrity Chamber Music Festival. You also have a must-attend concert series for classical music enthusiasts, beginning this coming Tuesday, Sept. 6 and going through Sunday, Sept. 11, both at Taipei's Novel Hall and Yuanlin Hall in Yunlin.
For this year's festival, the celebrated musicians of the Yinqi Orchestra have invited Japan's Euodia Chamber Ensemble to join them in the Composer Portrait Series. Led by world-renowned clarinettist Horioshi Yanase, Euodia regularly performs throughout Japan. Musicians from Euodia and Yinqi will perform together in all four concerts, including trio, quartet, sextet, septet and concerto arrangements.
But concertgoers certainly won't be hearing Yinqi's own musicians play second fiddle to their guests from Japan. It's players include the most sought-after musicians from Taiwan and include violinists Nancy Tsung (宗緒嫻), Su Cheng-tu (蘇正途) and Franz Chien (錢國昌); violists Grace Huang (黃瑞儀) and Sherry Chen Lin (陳玲玉); cellist Amy Chang Simon (張式明); pianist Hsiao Ching-wen (蕭晴文); oboist Liu Zhong-yi (劉榮義); and bassoonist Kuo Tsong-heng (郭宗恆).
Each has earned critical acclaim and accolades and have been invited to perform with the Yinqi Orchestra. Established in 1996, the orchestra has performed in Vancouver, Canada, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and at New York's Avery Fisher Hall.
Violist Sherry Chen Lin, who also serves as the director of the Yinqi Culture and Music Foundation (
"We're both Christian groups," she said. "We've often had musician exchanges. This is probably the fifth or sixth time." She said both Yinqi and Euodia, whose name means "spice of the highest quality" and is often associated with Christ, are interested in making music that glorifies God.
"The pieces were chosen because they are some of the most popular chamber music pieces," Chen said.
The Yinqi Culture and Music Foundation is offering 20 free tickets to Taipei Times' readers for next Tuesday and Wednesday concerts (10 tickets per concert, one ticket per person).
The first 20 people to send an e-mail to sherry@yinqi.org will receive one free ticket. Should winners wish to purchase additional tickets, they may either go to any ERA ticketing center (or online to www.ticket.com.tw) or visit the Yinqi office at 02 2585 0866.
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