Percussion can be found throughout the human world with many cultures using it for worship. Here in Taiwan a local group which has been entertaining audiences for 20 years aims to become the nation's heartbeat.
"If there is another 20 years [of success], I'd like to see our group become a living symbol of pride for Taiwan. I'd like to see the troupe become a public asset. We could take percussion music to every corner of the world and could be present at every important music festival of the world," said Ju Tzong-ching (
Ju was referring to his dream for the future in a recent interview given to mark JPG's 20th anniversary on Jan. 2, 2006.
To celebrate the troupe's 20 years of success, JPG is scheduled to perform a series of concerts, starting Wednesday, called Percussions Nouvelles (世界擊樂新潮流), as part of the 2005 Taipei International Percussion Convention (TIPC) which is being held in Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung. All of the performances in Taipei will take place at the National Concert Hall.
The TIPC has been held every three years since 1993 and has been attended by leading percussion ensembles of the world.
For the current TIPC, the organizer has ambitiously brought together seven of world's top-rated percussion troupes and two prestigious local percussion ensembles. The series of concerts will begin Wednesday and finish Jan. 2.
On the opening evening of this triennial convention, the younger JPG, the Ju Percussion Group 2 (JPG2), -- its 10 members are all aged under 25 -- will make its formal debut at the convention. Most of the young percussionists have been with the JPG for about two decades. Extensive training has equipped the performers who have held more than 50 concerts annually over the past few years with a solid musical education.
Wu Pei-ching (
Other troupes performing at the TIPC include Via Nova percussion group, which consists of four young Austrians who won first prize at the International Percussion Competition in Luxemburg earlier this year.
Via Nova is scheduled to perform Thursday evening and will, according to the organizer's introductory statement, demonstrate great "delicacy in its music."
The ensemble from Croatia, biNg bang, which won the Percussive Arts Society ensemble competition last year, is performing during the second half of Thursday evening's concert.
The group from Eastern Europe will feature "idiosyncratic and iconoclastic style [music], often similar in its jazz-rock flavor and occasional silliness to Frank Zappa's music," the organizer said.
On Dec. 30, the high energy drumming group STRIKE from New Zealand is slated to wow audience members with "elements of theater, dance, invention and rhythmic intricacy."
The group seamlessly merges audio and visual stimuli and draws on a wide range of musical influences -- classical and contemporary -- to combine body movements and theatrical presentation.
An unusual grouping of four talented women from Japan, Korea and Taiwan will present a concert of marimba music on New Year's Eve at 2:30pm. The four Asian marimbists will compete with each other by playing the song Hook in rounds, working up to the climax of the concert.
In the evening, the percussion quartet 4-Mality from the UK will present an energetic performance. The group's music can sweep "from funky and fast to sensuous and sensitive, from primitive African beats to oriental Japanese tunes and Caribbean percussion."
This powerful and inventive ensemble is the brainchild of the legendary Adrian Spillett, who is the first and only percussionist to win the BBC's prestigious Young Musician competition.
The spectacular Trio Yarn and the Ear Massage Quartet of Mexico will play in the afternoon on New Year's Day. Trio Yarn cut its teeth in France and in 2002 won first prize at the International Percussion Competition in Luxemburg. The group's simple and avant-garde style of music always draws rapturous applause from audiences.
In contrast, the four Latin percussionists, better known as EM Quartet, will offer up music for the soul with "a unique quality of warmth [and] modesty."
A 100-person Marimba Orchestra, consisting of musicians from the US and Taiwan, will perform a history-making concert at the TIPC event.
The percussionists will play 60 marimbas on one stage, conducted by international marimba masters Gordon Stout and Ju on New Year's Day evening. The scale of the concert is comparable to four similar performances in the US.
Marimba concerts consisting of between 100 to 300 performers have been held in the state of Oklahoma in 1941, Chicago in 1949 and 1950, and the US Military Academy at West Point in 1998. More importantly, the event would serve as a rare occasion for marimba players all over Taiwan to get together to share a moment of glory.
Drawing on two decades of experience, JPG will, on the anniversary night of Jan. 2, play music that represents "the group's phenomenal growth and success over the past 20 years," the organizer said.
In addition to the percussion classics, the troupe will introduce new works, such as an adaptation of the Taiwanese folksong Needle and Thread Love (
JPG ignited widespread interest in percussion music in Taiwan by establishing the first percussion group here in January 1986. Over the last two decades, it has left its mark on the island, be it in big cities, remote countryside or outer islands, and many continents of the world.
Ju said JPG usually gives more than 100 performances including 3 to 5 international tours each year.
Under Ju's guidance, JPG has, over the past 14 years, aggressively launched its own percussion music-teaching centers all over Taiwan.
As many as 80,000 students have attended percussion music lessons at JPG centers. At present there are 25 teaching centers islandwide and are training more than 13,000 students. The number is only fewer than students taking piano lessons in Taiwan. The group plans to set up new centers in Australia, US and China and hopes to increase the number to 50 within 3 years and to have over 300 centers in another 20 years' time. For detailed information on performance schedule, venue and ticketing, visit website at tipc.jpg.org.tw or call (02)2891-9900.
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