When the Ju Percussion Group (朱宗慶打擊樂團) hosted its first festival of percussion music in 1993, it was called the Taipei International Percussion Convention (台北國際打擊樂節) and it proved to be a milestone in the development of percussion music in Taiwan. Today sees the opening of the seventh installment of the triennial festival, but with one significant difference: This year it has been renamed the Taiwan International Percussion Convention (台灣國際打擊樂節). While not the first time that the convention has hosted events outside Taipei, this year sees an unprecedented extension of festival events to venues in central and southern Taiwan, including a number of free concerts.
With 26 concerts over eight days in eight cities and featuring 13 groups from 10 nations, the Taiwan International Percussion Convention is a major event on the international musical calendar. It is able to attract groups ranging from Percussion Ensemble Okada, the oldest percussion orchestra in Northeast Asia, to hot ticket groups such as Strike Percussion from New Zealand, which recently burst onto the percussion music scene and composed music for The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
Taiwan has risen to prominence in the world of percussion music largely through the work of Ju Tzong-ching (朱宗慶), who on returning from his musical studies abroad first established the Ju Percussion Group in 1986, and perhaps more importantly for the development of percussion music in Taiwan, set up the Ju Percussion Music School (朱宗慶打擊樂教學系統) in 1992.
Photo Courtesy of Ju Percussion Group
In an interview with the Taipei Times last week, principal percussionist Wu Pei-ching (吳珮菁) said that, in addition to promoting percussion music in the regular school system, about 20,000 students had passed through the Ju Percussion Music School since it was established. She said that this had helped create an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience for percussion music in the country, and was a contributory factor in the strong ticket sales for the concerts of this music festival.
“Many of the foreign groups we invite to perform here are amazed at the size of the audience that comes to see them perform,” she said. “For some concerts [in previous festivals], we have had an audience of 2,000, which might be as many people as the group performs to for the rest of the year combined.”
A couple of groups, such as the little-known PercaDu, a duo from Israel, are back in Taiwan on the strength of word-of-mouth publicity after dynamic performances
Photo Courtesy of Ju Percussion Group
in 2008.
Taiwan has a long tradition of percussion music of its own, and Wu said that a great effort has been made by the Ju Percussion Group to incorporate traditional Chinese percussion music into the training of percussion artists. As a professor at the music department of the Taipei National University of the Arts (國立臺北藝術大學), among numerous other commitments, Ju has insisted that students make themselves familiar with the use of percussion in Chinese operatic traditions, including nanguan (南管) and beiguan (北管). According to Wu, this has given Taiwan percussion its own unique characteristics. Because of the depth of talent, many of Taiwan’s top composers have also produced works for percussion orchestras.
Photo Courtesy of Ju Percussion Group
In the first three installments of the music festival, the participating international groups have been asked to perform a work by a local composer. Over the past 20 years, 57 compositions by local composers have premiered at the festival, and some of the works have become established parts of the repertoire of foreign groups, greatly enhancing Taiwan’s visibility on the international percussion scene.
This year, two new works by international composers have been commissioned by the Ju Percussion Group, including a new composition by New Zealand-born John Psathas, who composed the music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics. The second is by Emmanuel Sejourne, who is head of the percussions department of the Strasbourg Conservatory. In addition, two highly regarded soloists have been invited to perform with local percussion orchestras as a means of fostering greater international exchange.
Nebojsa Zivkovic from Germany and Svet Stoyanov from Bulgaria will be performing with Taiwan’s Forum Music Ensemble (十方樂集) and Ensemble 1002 (1002打擊樂團), respectively. The cooperative venture is intended not only to introduce outstanding young percussionists to audiences in Taiwan, but also to expand local performers’ horizons.
Wu said that this year’s festival was the most logistically ambitious to date. On Tuesday, there will be five concerts taking place simultaneously, with two ensembles from South Korea performing in Taipei, the Amsterdam Percussion Group in Taichung, Percussion Ensemble Okada in Tainan, Strike in Jhongli, and PercaDu in Yuanlin.
The Taiwan International Percussion Convention is an opportunity to enjoy some of the most sophisticated percussion music from around the world, ranging from works emerging from the rarefied world of contemporary classical to innovators who are making their mark on the popular mainstream.
The lineup:
A full schedule is available at ushop1023.ecmaster.tw/products.asp
NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Taiwanese Groups
■ Taiwan Ju Percussion Group (Today at 7:30pm)
■ Forum Music Ensemble (Tomorrow at 7:30pm, featuring German soloist Nebojsa Zivkovic)
■ Ensemble 1002 (Sunday at 7:30pm, featuring Bulgarian soloist Svet Stoyanov)
International Groups
■ France: TaCTuS (Tomorrow at 2pm) (replaces Les Percussions de Strasbourg, which had originally been scheduled to perform)
■ Israel: PercaDu (Sunday at 2pm)
■ Holland: Amsterdam Percussion Group (Monday at 7:30pm)
■ South Korea: Seoul Percussion Ensemble and Hannuri Yeon-Hee Dan (Tuesday at 7:30pm)
■ Japan: Percussion Ensemble Okada
(Wednesday at 7:30pm)
■ USA: Azaguno (Thursday at 7:30pm)
■ New Zealand: Strike Percussion (May 27 at 7:30pm)
FREE INDOOR PERFORMANCES
■ Sunday at 7:30pm: Strike Percussion at the Hsinchu County Performance Hall of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (新竹縣文化局演藝廳)
■ Tuesday at 7:30pm: Strike Percussion at the Jhongli Arts Hall (中壢藝術館)
■ Tuesday at 7:30pm: PercaDu at the Yuanlin Performance Hall (員林演藝廳)
■ Wednesday at 7:30pm: Amsterdam Percussion Group at the Jhongli Arts Hall (中壢藝術館)
■ Wednesday at 7:30pm: Strike at the Yuanlin Performance Hall (員林演藝廳)
■ May 27 at 7:30pm: PercaDu at the Sinjhuang Culture and Arts Center (新莊文藝中心)
FREE OUTDOOR PERFORMANCES
■ May 28 at 4:30pm: Seoul Percussion Ensemble and Hannuri Yeon-Dan
■ May 28 at 7:30pm: Azaguno
■ Both performances at the Kaohsiung Wei Wu Ying Center for the Arts (高雄衛武營藝文中心籌備處)
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