Having given Taichung and Hsinchu residents a windy start to the New Year with concerts at venues in the two central island cities earlier this week, The State Wind Orchestra of Kazakhstan will be blowing into Taipei tomorrow evening for a one-off show at the capital's National Concert Hall.
Formed in 1990 by conductor and arranger Kanat Akhmetov, the orchestra has represented the Central Asian nation at numerous international music festivals and has become one of Kazakhstan's most prominent and hardworking orchestras. The ensemble now makes annual appearances at prestigious venues throughout Europe and Asia as well as at home and in Russia, where the orchestra enjoys a sizable following.
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEHBRASS
For the orchestra's inaugural appearance in Taipei, it will be accompanied by divas Rosa Rymbayeva and Maira Mukhamed, while trumpeter and president of the Yueshuhan Brass Quintet (葉樹涵銅管五重奏團), Yeh Shu-Han (葉樹涵), will be on hand to give the show some local flavor.
Under the baton of Akhmetov, the orchestra will be huffing and puffing its way through a program entitled "Strolling Through the Grasslands of Central Asia." The program is set to fill the concert hall with the stirring tones of Central Asian classical works such as Kurmangazy and Brusilovsky's Baibyraun and Kuzhamiarov's Concert for Trumpet, as well as A. Bestybaev's Silk Road and Idee Fixed Symphony -- a work that, regardless of its name, has nothing to do with the popular Taipei department store.
Performance Notes:
The State Wind Orchestra of Kazakhstan will be performing Strolling Through the Grasslands of Central Asia at the National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳) tomorrow evening at 7:30pm. Tickets cost from NT$200 to NT$2,000 and are available from Acer ticketing outlets nationwide or direct from the venue.
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