The National Symphony Orchestra hopes its upcoming concerts to launch the 2022-2023 season would bring back audience lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the orchestra’s music director Jun Markl said on Monday.
“One of the very important points is to regain the audiences we might have lost during the COVID crisis. This program I hope is a really good start,” Markl told a news conference in Taipei to promote the orchestra’s upcoming concerts featuring three Scotland-themed pieces.
The concerts to be held in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taitung over the next two weekends would begin with Marche ecossaise sur un theme populaire (Scottish March on a Popular Theme) by Claude Debussy.
Photo courtesy of the National Symphony Orchestra via CNA
Debussy wrote the piece as a piano duet before developing it into an orchestra piece, which has parts similar to dance music from central France, Markl said.
France would be one of the main themes for a second season, featuring composers Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
The orchestra would be joined by guest violinist Paul Huang (黃俊文) for a concerto titled Scottish Fantasy by German composer Max Bruch, Markl said.
The New York-based violinist described the concerto as “sounding like a funeral march at the beginning, but ending in a festive atmosphere.”
Huang said he feels that the piece reflects the current climate, when people are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel after more than two years of the pandemic.
The violinist said he is looking forward to playing the piece with the orchestra’s principal harpist, Chieh Shuen (解暄).
The orchestra would play Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 (Scottish) for the second half of the concert, Markl said, with several works by the German composer to be played in the new season to mark the 175th anniversary of his death this year.
The concerts are to be held at the National Concert Hall in Taipei tomorrow, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts on Saturday, and the Taitung Art and Culture Center on Sept. 25.
Huang also helped curate a series of chamber music concerts for the new season, some of which were pitched by members of the orchestra. Huang is to headline two of those concerts in January next year.
Markl said the orchestra would continue the “one-minute symphony project” he introduced last season to help cultivate composers in Taiwan.
About 12 one-minute pieces would be featured during the new season to offer young composers an opportunity to improve their skills by working with the orchestra, he said, adding that five of the 10 composers last season have been picked to present their new works.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with
RSS