National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan)

The National Symphony Orchestra , also known as Philharmonia Taiwan outside Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, is one of the leading orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

s in Asia. Since 1987, the orchestra has its residence in the National Concert Hall in Taipei

Taipei

Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

, Taiwan.

Subscription Concert Series

In the year of 2002, NSO held a series of five concerts that featured all nine symphonies and five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

. The concerts, called a discovery cycle , became NSO's regular Subscription Concert Series later since the 2004/2005 season. In each season, there are ten concerts consisting of at least one orchestral work of a composer.

From September 2004 to June 2008, four Subscription Concert Series have been presented.

2007/2008 - Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...

2006/2007 - Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...

2005/2006 - Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....

2004/2005 - Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

( 2002/2003 - Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

)

In the 2008/2009 season, a newly created MyNSO series took place of the Subscription Concert Series.

Opera Series

Already in November 1994, NSO performed opera in National Concert Hall, Der fliegende Holländer was led by Prof. TSENG Dao-hsiung , in December 2000, Jahja Ling

Jahja Ling

Jahja Ling is an orchestra conductor. He is of Chinese descent and is now an American citizen. He began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Yayasan Pendidikan Musik School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to...

performed Hänsel und Gretel. Under Chien Wen-pin

Chien Wen-pin

Chien Wen-Pin is a Taiwanese classical conductor. He is the current music director of National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, to which he was appointed since July, 2001....

's directorship, he first tried a semi-stage performance of the Third Act of Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...

in May 2002, this experience became NSO's regular NSO Opera Series from the 2002/2003 season. In each season, there are two opera directed by cross-over artist in Taiwan

Taiwan

, the cast consisted mainly local singers.

From December 2002 to December 2007, fourteen operas have been produced, many of them were Taiwan's premier*.

2007/2008 - Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...

2006/2007 - *Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...

(complete), Die lustige Witwe
2005/2006 - Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....

, Le nozze di Figaro
2004/2005 - *Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...

, *Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...

2003/2004 - *La damnation de Faust, Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

2002/2003 - Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...

, *Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...

Fairy Tale Forever Series

From April 2002 to April 2008, NSO has been collaborated with four different performing groups and organizations for bringing musical experiences to the young audiences.

2007/2008 - Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...

2006/2007 - Le Carnaval des Animaux
The Carnival of the Animals
Le carnaval des animaux is a musical suite of fourteen movements by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The orchestral work has a duration between 22 and 30 minutes.-History:...

2005/2006 - Firebird
The Firebird
The Firebird is a 1910 ballet created by the composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer Michel Fokine. The ballet is based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird of the same name that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor....

2004/2005 - Secret in the Woods
2003/2004 - Pied Piper Fantasy
2002/2003 - Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf , Op. 67, is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story , spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra....

Artistic Direction

Gerard Akoka, artistic advisor and principal conductor 1986-1990
Urs Schneider, artistic advisor and principal conductor 1991-1992
Hsu Chang-huei , music director (commissioner) 1994
Chang Da-sheng , music director 1995-1997
Jahja Ling
Jahja Ling
Jahja Ling is an orchestra conductor. He is of Chinese descent and is now an American citizen. He began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Yayasan Pendidikan Musik School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to...

, music director 1998-2001
Chien Wen-pin
Chien Wen-pin
Chien Wen-Pin is a Taiwanese classical conductor. He is the current music director of National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, to which he was appointed since July, 2001....

, music director 2001-2007
Günther Herbig
Günther Herbig
Günther Herbig is a German conductor.Born in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, Herbig studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar in 1951 with Hermann Abendroth. He later was a student of Hermann Scherchen, Arvid Jansons, and Herbert von Karajan...

, artistic advisor and principal guest conductor 2008-2010
Lu Shao-chia
Lü Shao-chia
-Biography:Born in Taiwan, Lü studied piano at an early age. Initiated by Taiwanese conductor Chen Chiu-sen, he later turned to conducting and went on to Indiana University and Vienna Hochschule für Musik. In 1998, he was accepted in conducting course held by maestro Gennady Rozhdestvensky in...

, music director 2010-

The nomination of maestro Lu Shao-chia
Lü Shao-chia
-Biography:Born in Taiwan, Lü studied piano at an early age. Initiated by Taiwanese conductor Chen Chiu-sen, he later turned to conducting and went on to Indiana University and Vienna Hochschule für Musik. In 1998, he was accepted in conducting course held by maestro Gennady Rozhdestvensky in...

as NSO's 5th music director has been announced in June 2009, he has signed a five years contract.

Musicians

Concertmasters : Wu Ting-yu

Wu Ting-yu

Wu Ting-yu is a Taiwanese violinist. He currently serves as the concertmaster in Taiwan's leading National Symphony Orchestra.Born in Kaohsiung, Wu began to study violin at age of 5 with his father, Wu Lian-jing, a prestigious painter and violinist. Since then, he had studied with some of Taiwan's...

, Li I-ching

Li I-ching

Li I-ching is a Taiwanese violinist. She is the youngest concertmaster in the history of National Symphony Orchestra .After Li graduated from Kaohsiung Senior High School, she went to New England Conservatory of Music and studied under the guidance of James Buswell...

Associate concertmaster : Teng Hao-tun
Assistant Conductor : Chang Yin-fang

Strings (11-14-11-9-7)
Woodwinds (4-4-4-4)
Brass (5-4-4-1)
Timpani & Percussion (5)
Harp (1)
Piano (1)

Recordings

NSO has published the following recordings under their own label of "NSO Live":

Chien Wen-pin
Chien Wen-pin
Chien Wen-Pin is a Taiwanese classical conductor. He is the current music director of National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, to which he was appointed since July, 2001....

& NSO Live: Mahler Symphony No. 4
Symphony No. 4 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1899 and 1901, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. The song, "Das himmlische Leben", presents a child's vision of Heaven. It is sung by a soprano in the work's fourth and last movement...

& Shostakovich Symphony No. 8
Symphony No. 8 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 8 in C minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed on November 4 of that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated....

(2008)
Lü Shao-chia
Lü Shao-chia
-Biography:Born in Taiwan, Lü studied piano at an early age. Initiated by Taiwanese conductor Chen Chiu-sen, he later turned to conducting and went on to Indiana University and Vienna Hochschule für Musik. In 1998, he was accepted in conducting course held by maestro Gennady Rozhdestvensky in...

& NSO Live: Shostakovich Symphony No. 4
Symphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Opus 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material...

& Ein Heldenleben
Ein Heldenleben
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898, and heralds the composer's more mature period in this genre...

(2009)
Günther Herbig
Günther Herbig
Günther Herbig is a German conductor.Born in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, Herbig studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar in 1951 with Hermann Abendroth. He later was a student of Hermann Scherchen, Arvid Jansons, and Herbert von Karajan...

& NSO Live: Mahler Symphony No. 6
Symphony No. 6 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 6 in A minor by Gustav Mahler, sometimes referred to as the Tragische , was composed between 1903 and 1904 . The work's first performance was in Essen, on May 27, 1906, conducted by the composer.The tragic, even nihilistic ending of No...

(2009)
Bruckner Symphony No. 9 Live with Günther Herbig (2010)
Mahler Symphony No. 9 Live with Günther Herbig (2010)

Projects with conductor Lim Kek-tjiang and Rudolf Barshai

Rudolf Barshai

Rudolf Borisovich Barshai was a Soviet/Russian conductor and violist.Barshai was born in Stanitsa Lobinskaya, Krasnodar Krai, and studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Tseitlin and Vadim Borisovsky. He performed as a soloist as well as together with Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, and...

are also scheduled.

Staffs

Executive Director
Joyce Chiou

Artistic Planning division
Production & Administration division

Chairperson of the Board of Directors, National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center
TCHEN Yu-chiou

Artistic Director, National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center
LIU Chung-shu

Deputy Director, National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center
HSIEH Tsui-yu

External links

National Symphony Orchestra

National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center Online ticket selling system of National CKS Cultural Center

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