Voices from Taiwan~Chamber Music of Taiwanese Composers
Classical music is popular in Taiwan. Many musicians from Taiwan are well-known around the world, including Wen-Pin Chien (conductor), Chao-Liang Lin (violinist), Hung-Kuan Chan (pianist), and Mung-Chieh Liu (pianist), e.t.c. However, the first Taiwanese musician to win a world prize is a composer named Wen-Ye Jiang. His composition, "Formosa Dance", won the silver in the Olympic composition competition in Berlin in 1936. Nowadays, many Taiwanese composers are famous around the world and their compositions are performed in many important contemporary music festivals. Taiwanese-Americans are not as familiar with Taiwanese composers as compared to Taiwanese performers. That's the purpose of this concert.

The University of Minnesota educated many great Taiwanese musicians. Many alumni of the music department are famous orchestra players and professors in universities in Taiwan now. Some examples include: Chin-Jung Lin, a professor at the National Taipei Education University; Wei-Lung Lee, a professor at Tainan Art University; Chen-Yu Hsu, the associate principal second violin of the National Taiwanese Symphony Orchestra; Kai-Wei Chuang, a clarinet player in the Macau Symphony Orchestra. Many Taiwanese students studied at the University of Minnesota, so they are ideal performers for this concert.

A few years ago, Taiwanese Online Library held two concerts that focused on Taiwanese folk songs. The two concerts succeeded and attracted lots of attentions in Minnesota. They introduced the culture and music of Taiwan to Minnesotans. We decided to host a concert of Taiwanese composers' works. Our goal is to make this concert an annual activity in Minnesota and to introduce more Taiwanese composers to the world. We’ll discuss music history and perform the music of Taiwanese composers from the 1900s to the 21th century. We are honored to invite a great young Taiwanese composer, Astro Liu, to compose a new work for this concert. It will be a great concert. Please come to enjoy the beauty of Taiwanese music and to listen to the voices from Taiwan!