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.
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