Critically acclaimed Chinese violinist Yao Jue (
Yao is among China's highest-profile violinists and has enjoyed a distinguished career that began by winning the Chinese National Violin Competition at age 16. She was afterwards whisked out of China and given a full-ride scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to study under Zaven Melikian before moving to the prestigious Juilliard Music Conservatory under the tutelage of Dorothy DeLay. Her 1993 debut recital was at none other than Carnegie Center's Weill Recital Hall, where a packed audience lined the walls. She went on to perform at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Oregon's Yachats Music Festival and the Ravinia Music Festival.
PHOTO: SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY
Outside the US, her credentials are even more extensive. She's performed concerts broadcast from Taiwan, Beijing, Hong Kong and her native Shanghai. She graced the cover of a book called China's Famous Women, published as part of the International Women's Congress in Beijing in 1995 and is the only Chinese musician to have been received by Fidel Castro. The international orchestras with which she's played include the Singapore Symphony, the Century Symphony Orchestra of Japan, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, the Russia Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Honolulu Symphony.
That the celebrated virtuoso comes to Taiwan as part of National Sun Yat-sen University's annual concert series is significant, and an understandable source of pride for the university's music director, Lee Mei-wen (
The university is the only publicly funded one in Taiwan that offers students the chance to earn a degree in music and, as such, has been a driving force behind making southern Taiwan more musically literate. "We have a concert series every year to develop classical music in southern Taiwan," Lee said. "This is the first year we've had overseas cooperation, making it especially meaningful for us." As a bonus for the university's music students, Yao will be giving violin master classes.
Yao will perform Chen Gang's (
The first of the concerts will be held at National Sun Yat-sen University's concert hall at 7:30pm on Monday, Dec. 9. Yao and her entourage will then travel to Taipei's National Concert Hall for a second show on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 7:30pm. Tickets for each event cost NT$100 and are available at the venues.
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