衛武營國家藝術文化中心 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

Sheng Xiang & Band is a six-piece band led by singer-songwriter LIN Sheng-xiang and lyricist CHUNG Yung-feng. For this performance, Sheng Xiang & Band will perform songs from his I-Village Trilogy of albums: I-Village (2013), Village Besieged (2016), and Water Snowflake Goes to Market (2020). These critically-acclaimed, award-winning recordings trace the changes of a Taiwanese farming village through modern times, offering a larger commentary on the current struggles of working-class and ordinary people in Taiwan. Sheng Xiang & Band will be backed by a 13-piece Western classical string and wind ensemble, led by composer and arranger CHANG Shiuan. Fans will hear fresh arrangements of beloved songs.

  Pre-talk  

2022/12/3(Sat)18:50 Playhouse 2nd Floor

  Creative and Production Team  

【Sheng Xiang & Band】

Lead Vocals & 6-String Moon Guitar｜LIN Sheng-xiang

Lyrics & Spoken Word Poetry｜CHUNG Yung-feng

Electric Guitar｜Ken OHTAKE

Electric Bass｜Toru HAYAKAWA

Drums｜Noriaki FUKUSHIMA

Percussion & Erhu｜Alex WU

Suona & Dizi｜HUANG Po-yu

Composition & Orchestral Arrangements｜CHANG Shiuan

Conductor｜FAN Kai-hsi 

【Orchestra】

Violin｜HUNG Chang-wen *

Viola｜HUANG Ya-han *

Cello｜CHEN I-ting *

Double Bass｜SU Yi-jung *

Flute｜Chika MIYAZAKI *

Oboe｜ LEE Ming-i *

Clarinet｜LO Ta-chun

Bassoon｜CHEN I-hsiu *

Saxophone｜HSIEH Min-yen

Trumpet｜CHONG Loo-kit *

Trombone｜LEE Kun-ying *

Percussion｜YANG Pi-tzu *

Piano｜WENG Chung-hua *

*NSO Musicians

  Team Introduction  

Sheng Xiang & Band

Sheng Xiang & Band is a six-piece band led by singer-songwriter LIN Sheng-xiang and lyricist CHUNG Yung-feng. The duo's decades-long partnership has produced a large body of work about rural life and environmental issues, which have won them a large and loyal following across Taiwan. They are considered pioneers among the Hakka-speaking community for using the language exclusively in the modern rock idiom. Their efforts have yielded a long string of awards, including the Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan's highest music honor, for Best Album and Best Lyricist.   

Lead Vocals, 6-String Moon Guitar｜LIN Sheng-xiang

LIN Sheng-xiang was born in Meinung, a small rural town in southern Taiwan, near the port city of Kaohsiung. As a singer and songwriter, he came to prominence in the late 1990s with the Labor Exchange Band, which set him on a path to becoming one of Taiwan's most highly regarded folk singers of today. At the time, he and his songwriting partner, CHUNG Yung-feng, were part of a grassroots movement to save their hometown from a government dam project that endangered local communities and posed ecological risks to the environment. Combining Western folk rock with traditional Taiwanese music and singing in their native Hakka language, the pair created new, exciting music that galvanized a protest movement across Taiwan, and inspired generations of musicians and activists across the island. LIN has toured all over the world, performing in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He lives in Meinung today, and describes his life as one devoted to making music and raising his daughter.

LIN's career has seen the release of eleven albums and three film soundtracks, for which he has won nine Golden Melody Awards, ten Golden Indie Music Awards, one Taipei Film Festival award, and two Golden Horse Film Festival awards. Some of his landmark recordings include Planting Trees (2006), which explores the trials and tribulations of modern rural life for youth, The Land Is My Study (2010), an exploration of the work of the renowned Hakka-Taiwanese writer CHUNG Li-he (1915-1960), and Village Besieged (2016), a concept album about activists fighting pollution produced by the petrochemical industry in Southern Taiwan. LIN's current group, Sheng Xiang & Band, released their latest recording, Water Snowflake Goes to Market, in 2020.

Lyrics, Spoken Word Poetry｜CHUNG Yung-feng          

CHUNG Yung-feng is a writer, poet and lyricist best known for his partnership with singer-songwriter and fellow Meinung native LIN Sheng-Xiang. The son of a tobacco farmer, CHUNG teamed up with LIN to write lyrics for the Labor Exchange Band's seminal record Let Us Sing Mountain Songs (2000), which was a grassroots sensation across Taiwan and earned him a Best Producer accolade at the Golden Melody Awards, the Chinese-speaking world's highest music honor. He received several Golden Melody Awards for Best Lyricist for LIN's album Getting Dark (2005) and Planting Trees (2006), and was nominated for Best Lyricist for Sheng Xiang & Band's 2014 album I-Village. CHUNG continues to work with LIN today as lyricist and co-producer. Their latest release is Water Snowflake Goes to Market (2020), which touches upon the cultural significance of food from a rural perspective, and is a bookend to their "I-Village" trilogy of albums.

Composition & Orchestral Arrangements｜CHANG Shiuan     

Described as "spiritual, light and comforting." by  Classic Agenda (FR),  CHANG Shiuan's music has appeared internationally at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Merkin Hall, Suntory Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Moscow Philharmonic Chamber Hall, Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Hall, Hungary Bartok Hall, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Geneva Archipel Festival, Royaumont, and more. He has worked with and received commissions from the Cloudgate Contemporary Dance Company, National Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Civic Symphony Orchestra, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ek-meles Ensemble, Les Métabole,  Princeton Singers, TANA Quartet, Atlas Ensemble, Ensemble Multilaterale, Earplay Ensemble, Ictus Ensemble, maestro Péter EÖTVÖS and Gilbert VARGA. 

CHANG's the founder of Innuan, an non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live music performance in the new directions for the twenty-first century.

Conductor｜FAN Kai-hsi 

FAN Kai-hsi was born in Taiwan 1983, where she began learning music at a young age. In 2001, she attended Taipei National University of the Arts to study violin with Prof. SU Shien-ta. From 2006 to 2009, she continued her Master's studies in conducting at Taipei National University of the Arts with Prof. HSU Sung-jen. In 2010, she furthered her studies in conducting in the class of Prof. Per Borin at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, Germany; where she received her Artist Diploma (Konzertexamen) in 2012.

Prizewinner of many international conducting competitions such as "First Prize" in the Conducting Masterclass and Competition by Michael Dittrich in Budapest, Hungary in 2012, one of the last five Candidates in the world renowned Besancon International Competition for Young Conductors in September 2013, "Orchestra Prize" in the Opera Nice Cote D'azur Conducting Competition in 2018. She is going to conduct the Opera Nice during the 2021/22 season. Over the years, he has accumulated a wealth of performance experience, and has cooperated with domestic and foreign orchestras many times such as the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Württembergische Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, Württembergische Philharmonic Reutlingen, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, and Philharmonic Orchestra “Oltenia” Craiova (Romania) and National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in the Conducting Masterclass by Jorma PANULA, Bernard HAITINK, Jin WANG, Günther HERBIG, Michael DITTRICH and André DE QUADROS.

After returning to Taiwan in 2015, she immediately took up the post of assistant conductor of National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. During her tenure, she has won many outstanding performances and praises from members and fans. Performances in collaboration with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra include the parent-child concert "Symphony Elf" in May 2016, "The Poseidon Family and the Giant" in January 2017, the parent-child concert "Crutch Dog" in April 2017, and the "Artist" in May 2017. From the Philharmonic, May 2017, "Voice and Voiceless", September 2017, "Romantic Symphony Concert on the Third Line of Traveling Taiwan", October 2017 "Zeng Yuqian Concerto Concert", October 2017 "2017 Taichung Flower City" Art Season NTSO Zhen Ai Centennial Opening Musical-Homecoming", December 2017 "Sheng Can Sunflower-NTSO 72nd Anniversary Group Celebration Concert", March 2018 "2018 Taiwan Lantern Festival in Chiayi" and April 2018 Parent-Child Music "Music, Noise, Mute" and so on. In May 2018, she was invited to conduct "Presidential Palace Concert-My Hometown Scenery" at Yuanlin Performing Arts Hall; in October 2018, the two halls were invited to conduct "Children's Animation Concert-Searching for a New World"; in January 2019, she conducted "Music for Food Charity Concert Series-Winter Sun", widely acclaimed.

FAN Kai-hsi was the violist of Jade Quartet in Stuttgart, Germany (2013/2014), Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra Collegium Artium Stuttgart (2014/2015 season). assistant Conductor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (2015- 2018). Currently she is the Conductor of Tunghai University and Tainan National University of the Arts Department of Music.

National Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1986, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), also known as Taiwan Philharmonic, has been the resident orchestra of the National Concert Hall, and an artistic affiliate of the National Performing Arts Center in April 2014. The orchestra has benefited from the leadership of many music directors and princi-pal conductors, including Gerard Akoka, Urs Schneider, Tsang-houei HSU, Da-Shen CHANG, Jahja LING, Wen-Pin Chien, Güther Herbig and Shao-Chia LÜ. The NSO works regularly with internationally acclaimed musicians, including Lorin Maazel, K. Penderecki, Rudolf Barshai, Kek-Tjiang Lim, G. Schwarz, Uri Mayer, Joseph Silverstein, Leonard Slatkin, Christopher Hogwood, Christopher Poppen and many others. Tour performances were also regularly offered throughout Taiwan and in overseas, in places such as Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sapporo, Tokyo, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bei-jing, Costa Mesa, and Vancouver.

Presenter National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

Co-commissioned by National Theater & Concert Hall, Hakka Affairs Council and Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government. World premier on April 16th, 2021, at National Concert Hall, Taipei.

Photo ©劉振祥