An album featuring music by a Tainan City-based drum ensemble has been nominated for a Grammy award in the traditional world music category.
The album, Island of Drums, by the Tainan-based Ten Drum Art Percussion Group, was produced by the Taipei-based Wind Music International Corp.
It was nominated in Los Angeles on Thursday, with four other contenders featuring Iraqi/Indian, Irish, African and Latin American music.
16 YEARS
Ten Drum Art’s nomination marks the first time in 16 years that a Taiwanese album has been nominated for a Grammy, the world’s biggest music award ceremony, which will take place next month.
The last one — Taiwan’s first Grammy nomination — was in 1993.
The nominees for the 52nd Grammy Awards were selected in a vote by 3,600 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the US for outstanding achievements in the music industry.
Ten Drum Art founder Hsieh Shih (謝十), who began playing the drums at the age of three and who composed all five pieces on the album, expressed elation over the nomination.
Of the five, The Gate of Taiwan, a 20-minute piece featuring traditional Chinese drums of all sizes along with suona — a traditional Chinese reed instrument — and dulcimers, tells the epic story of how Koxinga (鄭成功)ade landfall on the coast of Tainan’s Luermen (鹿耳門) in the 17th Century, Hsieh said.
Hsieh founded the ensemble in 2000, naming the company Ten Drum Art because his given name translates as Ten, while the character for the numeral 10 also signifies “energy from all directions.”
PERFORMANCE
The group’s performances involve not only complex drumming, but also postures, he said, adding that to perfect their performances, the players jog for 5km every day, besides drumming at least 4,000 beats and laboring on farms.
Hsieh described the Grammy nomination as a turning point in his career.
“My goal is to build Tainan into the homeland of drumming and Taiwan into the island of drums,” he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it