The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) plans to establish a youth orchestra next year, further expanding its existing education programs to cultivate young musicians in Taiwan, music director Jun Markl said in Taipei on Wednesday.
“We want to help the young generation develop and to create the highest standard of potential we have here in Taiwan,” said Markl, who took up the post of music director in January.
The National Symphony Youth Orchestra follows the NSO’s apprenticeship, internship and young conductor programs, as well as the composer program called the “1-minute symphony” project launched in this year’s season, he said, adding that it expects to make its debut in July next year.
Photo Courtesy of the National Symphony and Orchestra, via CNA
The NSO is in February to hold auditions to choose about 70 musicians aged from 12 to 25 to attend an education program at the Northern Miaoli Art Center in Miaoli County’s Zhunan Township (竹南), before the youth orchestra makes its debut at the venue in July, Markl said.
Markl would lead the first group of young musicians, who are set to perform four to five concerts around Taiwan, with guest violinist Carolin Widmann, the NSO said.
The German violinist and her composer brother Jorg Widmann most recently worked with the NSO on a series of concerts at the beginning of the 2022 to 2023 season in August and September.
Contemporary and classic pieces would be included in the youth orchestra’s first concerts, including Igor Stavinsky’s The Firebird Suite, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, and Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa’s Woven Dreams.
Unlike existing youth orchestras in Taiwan, which are either based in a city or at a university, the National Symphony Youth Orchestra would be open to all young musicians in Taiwan and would perform concerts in cities and towns across the country, he said.
His vision for the youth orchestra is for the troupe and musicians taking part in the program to become cultural ambassadors for Taiwan, he added.
Details on the auditions for the youth orchestra, which would tour Taiwan every summer and winter, is to be published in January, the NSO said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS