The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) plans to establish a youth orchestra next year, further expanding its existing education programs to cultivate young musicians in Taiwan, music director Jun Markl said in Taipei on Wednesday.
“We want to help the young generation develop and to create the highest standard of potential we have here in Taiwan,” said Markl, who took up the post of music director in January.
The National Symphony Youth Orchestra follows the NSO’s apprenticeship, internship and young conductor programs, as well as the composer program called the “1-minute symphony” project launched in this year’s season, he said, adding that it expects to make its debut in July next year.
Photo Courtesy of the National Symphony and Orchestra, via CNA
The NSO is in February to hold auditions to choose about 70 musicians aged from 12 to 25 to attend an education program at the Northern Miaoli Art Center in Miaoli County’s Zhunan Township (竹南), before the youth orchestra makes its debut at the venue in July, Markl said.
Markl would lead the first group of young musicians, who are set to perform four to five concerts around Taiwan, with guest violinist Carolin Widmann, the NSO said.
The German violinist and her composer brother Jorg Widmann most recently worked with the NSO on a series of concerts at the beginning of the 2022 to 2023 season in August and September.
Contemporary and classic pieces would be included in the youth orchestra’s first concerts, including Igor Stavinsky’s The Firebird Suite, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, and Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa’s Woven Dreams.
Unlike existing youth orchestras in Taiwan, which are either based in a city or at a university, the National Symphony Youth Orchestra would be open to all young musicians in Taiwan and would perform concerts in cities and towns across the country, he said.
His vision for the youth orchestra is for the troupe and musicians taking part in the program to become cultural ambassadors for Taiwan, he added.
Details on the auditions for the youth orchestra, which would tour Taiwan every summer and winter, is to be published in January, the NSO said.
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