Garbage trucks on Saturday inadvertently disrupted a performance by the New Japan Philharmonic World Dream Orchestra in the National Taiwan University Sports Center when they started loudly playing prerecorded tunes that signal waste collection, sparking outrage from classical music fans attending the event.
The internationally renowned orchestra was performing in the sports center when the trucks came to collect trash and recycling, playing music that twice disrupted musicians, sources said.
City garbage trucks play Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Tekla Badarzewska-Baranowska’s A Maiden’s Prayer at each collection stop to alert residents of collection times.
Photo courtesy of BigArt
The truck music reportedly surprised conductor Joe Hisaishi, who looked around the venue for its source before giving up and waiting for the tune to finish. He then smiled and gave a polite bow in its general direction before resuming the performance, a gesture that earned him applause from the audience.
However, netizens flooded the Facebook page of BigArt, the concert’s organizer, with angry posts, saying the company showed no regard for acoustics while selecting the venue and failed to anticipate the scheduled garbage collection, which showed no respect to ticket-buyers or performers.
“They lost our face to the world,” one netizen said.
“Now I have listened to garbage trucks for the first time during a concert; I will remember this for the rest of my life,” another said.
BigArt said the acoustic problems and the arrival of garbage trucks between 8pm and 9:10pm were known to Japanese organizers, and they had tried adjusting the schedule, but withheld the information from the musicians to “avoid affecting their performance.”
BigArt said that it had told Japanese organizers that the National Theater and Concert Hall were unavailable, and the orchestra said that background noises should not cause problems.
It said that Hisaishi asked staff members about the noise in a curious way and joked about it after the performance.
BigArt said that it accepts public criticisms and would use them to improve its conduct.
Formal concerts are usually performed at professional venues, but even purpose-built concert halls could be overwhelmed by unwanted noise, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra chief of marketing and planning Huang Fu-ming (黃馥茗) said.
Huang said a performance by the symphony orchestra was once interrupted by fireworks near a venue, adding that such situations can only be averted by coordinating with city authorities and organizers of other events.
Universal Music Taiwan Ltd director of jazz and classical music Bernard Fu (傅慶良) said the sports center is not designed to host musical performances and coordination is necessary if a orchestra performs at the venue.
“The concert could have taken place on days when there are no garbage collection, like Wednesdays or Sundays, or they could have asked trucks not to play music when they were in the neighborhood,” Fu said.
Fu added that the incident is unusual because in Taiwan, complaints are typically made by local residents against the concert organizers and performers, citing the example of pop singer A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at the Taipei Arena last year.
Additional reporting by Kuo An-chia
OFFLINE: People who do not wish to register can get the money from select ATMs using their bank card, ID number and National Health Insurance card number Online registration for NT$6,000 (US$196.32) cash payments drawn from last year’s tax surplus is to open today for eligible people whose national ID or permanent residency number ends in either a zero or a one, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. Officials from the ministry revealed which days Taiwanese and eligible foreigners would be able to register for the cash payments at a joint news conference with the Ministry of Digital Affairs. Online registration is to open tomorrow for those whose number ends in a two or three; on Friday for those that end in a four or five: on Saturday
Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) officials are investigating why a Starlux Airlines flight to Penang, Malaysia, returned to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport nearly two hours after takeoff yesterday morning. The airline said in a statement that Flight JX721 to Penang took off from Taoyuan airport at 9:20am. “After the dashboard showed a signal of an abnormality in the hydraulic system, the captain followed standard operating procedures and returned the flight to Taoyuan airport for safety precautions,” the airline said, adding that the flight landed safely at the airport at 11:04am. The airline arranged for the passengers to have lunch after the flight landed and
TECH PROGRAM: A US official said that an important part of the delegation’s trip would be to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co executives The US is to send officials in charge of chip development to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to promote cooperation in the global semiconductor supply chain, the US Department of Commerce said on Tuesday. Chips Program Office Director Michael Schmidt announced the visit, which marks the first time officials from the office are to visit the three nations since it was set up in September last year. “As semiconductors and technologies continue to evolve, the United States will keep working with allies and partners to develop coordinated strategies to ensure that malign actors cannot use the latest technologies to undermine our collective
WORKING UP AN APPETITE: Sales at the Rueifong Night Market surged 20 to 30 percent, while seats at Liouhe Night Market were packed until 1am, market officials said South Korean pop band Blackpink’s concerts over the weekend in Kaohsiung helped draw large crowds to local night markets, the Kaohsiung City Government said yesterday. The two concerts on Saturday and Sunday at Kaohsiung National Stadium drew more than 90,000 people. The city government offered NT$50 vouchers to spend locally to concertgoers who showed their ticket stubs. Liouhe Night Market (六合夜市) management committee head Chuang Chi-chang (莊其章) said that crowds over the weekend surged at about 10pm and the market remained packed until 1:30am. “Almost all the seats were filled,” Chuang said. Night market stall owners had stocked up in expectation of an increased number