Concerts by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) students and lecturers in Taipei and Beijing this month aim to foster cross-strait music exchanges and usher in the new year.
The university’s symphony orchestra and band as well as other students and alumni will perform a repertoire that includes everything from classical music to contemporary pop to the music of Taiwan’s Aborigines.
On the playlist are OAOA by Taiwanese rock band Mayday (五月天), the theme song to the blockbuster romantic comedy You are the Apple of my Eye (那些年,我們一起追的女孩) and pop singer Chang Yu-sheng’s (張雨生) My Future is Not a Dream (我的未來不是夢), the university said.
The Beijing concerts will take place on Tuesday at Renmin University of China, at Peking University on Thursday and at Beijing Normal University on Saturday.
Concerts will then be held on Dec. 23 at the university’s Linkou (林口) campus in New Taipei City (新北市) and on Dec. 24 at its main Taipei campus.
National Taiwan Normal University and several Chinese universities launched a program in 2009 that sends their students to remote places in Taiwan and China to teach for short periods.
Seventeen Chinese universities participated in the program this year.
NTNU is now hoping to expand its exchanges to include music. The school said is to be home to one of the nation’s strongest music departments.
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