The Taipei Chinese Orchestra
The Taipei Chinese Orchestra is a joyful discovery, evoking delicate playfulness, high drama, or the tranquility of a misty Chinese valley with equal atmosphere. (CLASSIC FM)The Taipei Chinese Orchestra articulate with balletic grace, that extraordinarily delicate string tone projecting with determined swank. (Philip Clark, GRAMOPHONE)
Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO) was established in 1979 as Taiwan’s first professional Chinese orchestra. It was formerly led by general directors CHEN Tun-Chu, David CHEN, WANG Cheng-Ping, CHUNG Yiu-Kwong and CHENG Li-Pin; the incumbent General Director is CHEN Cheng-Kang.Thanks to the extraordinary leadership of the former and serving general directors, music directors WANG Cheng-Ping and SHAO En and Principal Conductor QU Chunquan and CHANG Yu-An, the performing prowess of TCO has been continually strengthened, making it an internationally-renowned orchestra. With creative crossover programs that expand the definition of Chinese music, TCO has successfully established its signature style and artistic direction.
TCO's slogan “Let You Hear the World”, indicates that TCO not only performs Chinese music, but also collaborates with elite musicians worldwide. Meanwhile, TCO has endeavoured to multi-disciplinary performance, in search of brand new auditory experience for local audience, as well as developing a new model for Chinese music in Taiwan. Among those attempts, productions from TCO Theater Series since 2017 are especially ambitious. In recent years, TCO has commissioned a large number of Taiwanese composers to write original pieces for Chinese orchestra, thus become the orchestra that commissions and premieres the most works by Taiwanese composers in the world, successfully establishing its own international brand.
TCO performs for more than 100,000 music lovers annually and holds concerts in various forms. Among those are Taipei Traditional Arts Festival holding from March to June every year; “As Music As Life”, an educational project of over 20 concerts per year for sixth graders in Taipei City; “Culture in the Back Alley” series consisting of 36 community concerts of promotional project; tours at schools and halls around Taiwan, and so on. It also has a huge community comprising of more than 500 members of its seven affiliated orchestras that rehearse and perform regularly, laying down a solid foundation for the thriving development of Chinese music.
In terms of international exchange, the TCO has previously performed at major concert halls around in the world, making its presence known in more than 20 countries in Europe, North America and Asia, and has been warmly welcomed by music lovers wherever it performed. In February 2011, an US tour arranged by internationally-renowned management company “Opus 3 Artists”, made TCO the first Chinese music orchestra promoted by an international arts management company. Furthermore, TCO has become the first professional orchestra from Taiwan performing at Carnegie Hall in New York upon its debut there in November, 2018. The impressive performances during the tours have earned TCO music lovers around globe.
Since its founding, TCO has released more than 50 recordings, impressing international music community by its outstanding performance. Some of the albums had won the Golden Melody Award in Taiwan. Since 2008, TCO was invited by Sweden record label BIS Records, released 6 CDs internationally; among these albums Whirling Dance and Ecstatic Drumbeat won the Golden Melody Award for Traditional Arts Music in the 21th and 24th, respectively. TCO and Muse Music team up to release a successive series of works: Sketches of Taiwan for Chinese Orchestra, Holy Pilgrimage, Taiwanese Aboriginal Carnival, and The Four Women in Puppet Master LEE Tien-Lu's Life in hopes of bringing an international perspective to Taiwan's creative energy on a global stage. Among which, Sketches of Taiwan for Chinese Orchestra, Taiwanese Aboriginal Carnival and The Four Women in Puppet Master LEE Tien-Lu's Life earned the 28th and 29th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music, Best Interpretation, Producer of the Year (album), and Best Lyrics.；My Mom Needs an Education earned the 109 Excellent Government Publication.
Over the past 43 years, coming a long way from humble beginnings, TCO has grown steadily, one step at a time, to become a world class orchestra, devoting itself to paving the way to the new era of Chinese music.
Orchestra's Personal web-site
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The Taipei Chinese Orchestra
Персональная страница Оркестра:
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