What's New
2019 TIFA Contemporary Music Platform- Our Quest for Music Continues
The Year of 2019 launches on a brand new challenging note for the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). We plan to set up a Contemporary Music Platform, hoping to present a Taiwanese-German co-production of Turandot; Cloud Gate's successor Cheng's 22° Lunar Halo; The Battle of Dragon City as presented by The 90-year-old Ming Hwa Yuan Arts and Culture Group; and the series of Netherlands Focus. Assuming the lead role, Weiwuying aims to combine domestic and international performing groups via multi-faceted workshops, talks, and forums to install a complete ecosystem for the performing arts in Taiwan.
▲The Battle of Dragon City
The first time TIFA presented by Weiwuying and other two national performing Arts Centers hopes to attract fans with our Contemporary Music Platform in April. This music platform is also the last piece of puzzle for the three performing arts platforms, combining performances, a contemporary music academy, and international linkage to closely tie creators, performers, and audiences. The project hopes to excel the energy of the performing arts center and will help to promote and foster contemporary art works.
Ensemble KNM Berlin Stereoscope is a Music-Theatre-Installation combining concert, theatre, dance, and installation art. The performing space will be open for the audience to step in and to discover music, dance, and installation work from nearby or from a distance simply by walking around. In addition, electronics sound musician Dickson Dee from Hong Kong and Nanyin artist Cai Yayi collaborate, using traditional Nanyin music and impromptu electronics sound music, to produce The Modern-Day Flavours of Nanyin and Naamyam. Following the same vein, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, which has been acclaimed by CNN as “one of the most avant-garde music groups in Hong Kong,” will perform with the Taiwanese-born conductor Liao Xiao Lin to break the boundaries of forms and to bring variety to the contemporary music with The Sound of Bloom's Epoch.
Co-production Opera, Turandot--Asia Debut
In April 2019, a grand-scale co-production of Weiwuying and Deutsche Oper am Rhein will astonish all the audiences in Taiwan with Puccini's Turandot! The debut was staged in Germany in 2015 and later charmed audiences from all walks of life with another 26 consecutive performances throughout Europe. This opera is directed by a renowned Chinese-born director Li Huan-hsiung, also the first Chinese director in the German opera house.
▲Co-production Opera, Turandot.Photo by Hans Jörg Michel
Training Local Artist Co-Project
This “Training the Local Artists Co-Project” is a collective production by Weiwuying, National Theatre & Concert Hall, and National Taichung Theatre. In his new dance piece 22° Lunar Halo, Cheng Tsung-lung and Cloud Gate 2 jointly draw on this natural phenomenon to explore the themes of human anxieties, struggles, desires, love and loneliness in the lunatic, ever-changing world. Set to music by the internationally renowned Icelandic band Sigur Rós, Cheng, integrating origami and with an illuminating screen, unfolds an exotic modern fable, as dancers, like mystic animals, squeeze one another, creep, mate, fight, and kill on the deep-black mirrored floor.
Weiwuying National Performing Arts Center, National Theatre & Concert Hall, and National Taichung Theatre co-produced the first winning prize—A Million Miles Away by Huang Yi Studio, which will be presented in May 2019 at Weiwuying Performing Arts Center. Weaving together rich layers of graceful and graceful body movements, A Million Miles Away debunks the borders of technology and choreography, sharing moments in life that carry us forward.
Reed Unbroken, derived from a large-scale Chinese Musical Chuan-er, is produced on a scale like that of a US Broadway Show. After Reed Unbroken's premiere in 2015, there have been 22 shows throughout Chinese-spoken communities and will be introduced to Weiwuying in May of 2019. Reed Unbroken uses a culture of a Taiwanese Opera within the framework of a Western musical, fostering a contemporary opera chanting exclusive to the Taiwanese people.
Internationally Renowned Groups Soon to Arrive in Kaohsiung
Duisburg “7” by The Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg will launch the spring performance season in March of 2019. Germany's Tanz Magazine's poll of international critics has named The Ballett am Rhein “Best Company” four years in a row, and its artistic director and principal choreographer, Martin Schläpfer, “Choreographer of the Year.”
▲Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg 7 .Photo by Gert Weigelt
Following the Ballet, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the most representative orchestra in UK, will be led by its principal conductor Vladimir Jurowski to perform with young violinist Julia Fischer, the globally recognized soloist, showcasing a classical music feast at Weiwuying's vineyard-style music hall.
▲Philharmonic Orchestra.Photo by Richard Cannon
In May 2019, Anatol Ugorski will make his Taiwan debut, performing classical works of Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Liszt for all Weiwuying's audiences. The intrinsic aspects of his artistic personality and supreme talent have brought the New York Times to deem Ugorski an “exceptional pianist”.
▲Anatol Ugorski.Photo by Blooming Arts
In June, Weiwuying presents a series of three programs with Netherlands Focus. First, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with the newly appointed chief conductor Lahav Shani and violinist Renaud Capuçon will bring the intense energy of its performances and innovative audience approach to perform the symphonies of Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich in Kaohsiung, after their last show in Taiwan ten years ago. Next, the Piano Duo by Lucas and Arthur Jussen will lure us with Chopin and Ravel. Their debut CD won them the “Edison Klassiek Audience Award” and their album was also listed by Gramophone amongst “The 50 Greatest Mozart Recordings.” Last but not least, Nederlands Dans Theatre, founded for almost six decades and listed by French Le Figaro as “one of the seven wonders in the world of dance,” has built a rich repertoire of over 600 ballets and will soon present Safe and Houses, Solo Echo, and Shut Eye at Weiwuying.
▲Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra | ▲Piano Duo—Lucas & Arthur Jussen Photo by Marco Borggreve | ▲Nederlands Dans Theatre Photo by Rahi Rezvani |