From Taipei to the World Seeing Taipei on the World Stage
In August this year, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra (hereinafter referred to as TCO) hosted the 2025 Summer Chinese Music Training Camp and the TCO Rising Stars Taipei Chinese Orchestra summer program, both of which received enthusiastic responses. TCO guided participants of all ages to learn and explore the art of Chinese music, shining with passion and brilliance on stage. Next, TCO will launch its 2025/26 new season, themed The Music of LO Leung-Fai, featuring eight captivating program series. The season will bring together renowned performers from Taiwan and abroad to present moving musical works. In this season, TCO will once again embark on its journey From Taipei to the World, performing at three of Europe’s most prestigious concert halls — the Berlin Philharmonic Concert Hall, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and the Golden Hall in Vienna — to bring the beauty of Chinese music to European audiences. Beyond live performances, starting in September, TCO will also premiere two new programs on its official YouTube channel: “TCO Concert Highlights Premiere” and “Just Vibing! Chinese Music as Daily Practice,” enabling music lovers to experience the charm of Chinese music both online and offline.
In this issue of “Chinese Music as Daily Practice,” TCO invited Sheng performer CHU Le-Ning and Erhu performer WU Meng-Shan to share their thoughts on the theme Chinese music and sports. Performance itself can also be seen as a form of exercise. Through regular physical training, musicians can benefit in areas such as body and muscle coordination, breath control, and mental discipline. Music is not confined to technical mastery; it also requires an awareness of one’s body languag e and perceptual abilities. The stage is not merely a space for sound, but also a theater of the body. Through their bodies, performers transform music into tangible energy, embodying sincerity while reaching toward an ideal personality and artistic realm.
At first glance, war and music may seem like distant subjects. Yet, under the observation of TCO Associate Conductor CHIANG Chen-Hao, the focus turns to two significant works: The Fantasia – The Chin Dynasty Terra Cotta Soldiers by PENG Xiuwen, and Symphony No. 5 by the Danish composer Carl August Nielsen. Art has long been an essential medium for recording and reflecting on war, as seen in painting, sculpture, film, and literature. Though Eastern and Western traditions use diff erent vocabularies and perspectives, both express the human spirit under the shadow of war. Let us, through this article, listen to that chapter of wartime history as preserved in music.
LI Zhen-Dong was one of the key promoters of Chinese music during the 1960s and 1970s. By profession he was a dentist and operated the Da-Dong Dental Clinic, but instead of attracting patients, the clinic became a gathering place for students of Chinese music and friends from the music community—a hub for learning and exchange. This article, written by Professor CHEN Duan-An, documents Mr. LI’s contributions in teaching Chinese music, advancing music education, reforming instruments, composing and arranging, as well as founding the University Chinese Orchestra. Mr. Li was also tireless in nurturing younger generations. Beyond his dedicated teaching, he wholeheartedly recommended his students for performance opportunities, recording projects, and faculty positions in music departments. Through these efforts, he opened the doors of the musical world to them, and many of his students continue to shine on the stage to this day.
In the new season From Taipei to the World, TCO embraces both tradition and innovation. On one hand, it presents the program series The Music of LO Leung-Fai, which captures significant chapters in the history of Taiwanese Chinese music. On the other, it actively explores new directions—creating cross-disciplinary productions that blend folk songs with musical theater, while also expanding its presence and engagement on digital platforms. TCO sincerely invites music lovers to join in this highly anticipated season, to see the world from Taipei and see Taipei on the world stage.
Cultural Mission and Musical Excellence: The Splendid Opening of the 2025/26 Season
Text / YEN Tsai-Teng
Image / Taipei Chinese Orchestra
In the 2025/26 season, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO) will present more than 40 performances shaped by core program focuses, including The Music of LO Leung-Fai, the TCO Star Series, the Virtuoso Series, and initiatives in cultural preservation. Through these curatorial approaches, the orchestra continues to fulfill its mission to preserve tradition, cultivate talent, develop new works, and promote cross-disciplinary innovation.
The Music of LO Leung-Fai continues TCO's long-standing commitment to spotlighting composers. The season features dedicated concerts, revivals of representative works, and new commissions that trace LO's creative journey from the 1970s to the present. Alongside classic works such as Spring , Summer , Autumn , Winter , his monumental GUAN Gong will return as the centerpiece of the Opening Concert of the 2026 Taipei Traditional Arts Festival. LO has also been invited to compose a new pipa concerto as the designated piece for the finals of the 2026 Taipei Chinese Instrumental Competition, reflecting his vision of renewing the canon while sustaining creative vitality.
The TCO Star Series brings together past competition winners, current orchestra members, and former principal players from its affiliated ensembles, appearing either as soloists or as composers of new works. For commissions, established and emerging composers with competition credentials are invited to create new pieces. In performance, laureates of past instrumental competitions appear as soloists in various programs, while current TCO section members present diverse solo recitals within the Exquisite Series.
The Virtuoso Series assembles outstanding performers and renowned composers from Taiwan and abroad. Highlights include CHEN Chung-Shen's return to perform MA Shui-Long's Concerto for Bamboo Flute and Chinese Orchestra, as well as premieres of new symphonic works by David Loong-Hsing WEN and YIU Chang-Fa. Several pipa masters will take the stage together in two programs for spirited encounters that showcase the artistry of the instrument at the highest level. The season concludes with TCO's international tour to three of Europe's most prestigious concert halls: the Berliner Philharmonie, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Vienna's Musikverein Golden Hall, enhancing the orchestra's global profile.
In education and preservation, TCO continues to support its affiliated ensembles and chorus, and collaborates with university departments through the Rising Stars of Chinese Music Project, providing young musicians with valuable stage experience. The season also includes the Concert of the Designated Repertoire, the 114 Academic Year National Student Music Competition, as well as tribute concerts honoring MIN Huifen and PENG Xiuwen. Theater and concert projects themed on campus folk songs and the works of Chiung Yao further extend the dialogue between Chinese Music and popular culture.
This season's program strikes a balance between breadth and depth, reflecting the TCO's artistic strength and its ongoing commitment to cultural heritage and music education.
Body as Concerto: Cultivating Resonance with the Universe
LIU Ma-Li
(Adjunct Assistant Professor at National Dong Hwa University and Department of Music, University of Taipei)
CHU Le-Ning, WU Meng-Shan
This article examines the experiences of two Chinese Music performers, CHU Le-Ning and WU Meng-Shan, in how musicians view their bodies as vessels for music with which they engage in a deep dialogue with the universe. More than a display of techniques, performance is an integrated practice that involves the body, breath, and perception. Muscle memory, breathing rhythm, and postural stability form the energetic core of the performer, shaping tone, emotion, and tempo control.
From an early age, CHU Le-Ning enjoyed swimming and volleyball. The lung capacity and muscular strength she developed through sports became a vital foundation for her performance on the sheng. As a reed instrument of considerable weight, the sheng demands precise breath control and upper-body endurance. CHU describes weight training as a "dialogue with the muscles," through which she came to recognize pelvic, abdominal, and back muscles often overlooked in performance. This awareness has given her music a stronger foundation and greater resonance. She emphasizes that performing, like strength training, requires mastering the application of force and maintaining bodily balance to play the instrument with ease and
WU Meng-Shan engages in a variety of physical practices, each targeting different aspects of fitness and muscle groups and giving her body nuanced feedback. Among these activities, mountain climbing teaches her to regulate breathing and control physical exertion, while yoga enhances her sensitivity to musical flow and physical coordination. She believes that performers are not merely executors of technique but creators of music. She emphasizes that “the body is an integral part of musical expression,” describing performance as a state of dynamic balance involving breath, center of gravity, and posture. She advocates moving beyond the conventional mindset in music education that treats the body merely as a tool, instead recognizing it as an active medium at the heart of musical creation.
Music education should extend beyond technique to include bodily awareness. The stage is a physical theater where performers manifest music through their bodies, achieving a state of sincere artistry. Performance is a spiritual practice that balanc es skill and body in resonance with the universe.
– The Chin Dynasty Terra Cotta Soldiers and NIELSEN's Symphony No. 5
Text and Image / CHIANG Chen-Hao
The history of humanity is, in many respects, a history of war. Across time and culture, art has served as a vital means to rec ord and reflect on the experience of conflict. Music, in particular, not only captures the zeitgeist but also reaches into the deepest layers of human pain and longing.
This essay focuses on two compositions that seem distant in context, yet both take war as their central theme: The Fantasia –The Chin Dynasty Terra Cotta Soldiers by PENG Xiuwen and Symphony No.5 by Carl August NIELSEN. Each offers a response to the shadow of war shaped by its own cultural setting.
PENG Xiuwen (1931–1996) played a crucial role in shaping the modern Chinese Orchestra. His 1984 fantasia, inspired by the Terracotta Warriors, unfolds in three movements: "Military Discipline," "Dream of the Boudoir," and "Suspension of the Great Banner." Rather than merely depicting the grandeur of ancient armies, the piece reveals, through majestic scenes and subtle emotion, the death, homesickness, and sorrow that lie beneath the spectacle of war.
The first and third movements reflect the rigidity of imperial rule, while the second expresses grief and longing. PENG drew on the timbres and cultural symbolism of traditional Chinese instruments—the xun, with its sobbing tone; the zheng, evoking a longing woman; and the string duet, like a voice in quiet confession—to blend the concrete with the lyrical. The work ultimately reflects not triumph on the battlefield, but a contemplation of history and a quiet indictment of its suffering.
In contrast, Symphony No. 5, composed between 1921 and 1922 in the aftermath of the First World War, was the work of Danish composer Carl August NIELSEN (1865–1931). Structured in two movements and without a programmatic title, the piece was conceived as absolute music, yet it carries a powerful emotional weight. Its tension between structure and disruption becomes a musical reflection of the fractured human spirit.
In the first movement, jarring snare drum rhythms slice through the orchestra, injecting a sense of violence and instability th at disturbs the surrounding warmth. These sudden ruptures echo the psychological wounds left by war. The second movement emphasizes structure and clarity, employing a fugue to convey a modest hope for renewal. Although NIELSEN claimed that the work was not programmatic, he recognized that "war had changed us all."
PENG's fantasia provides a historical perspective, while NIELSEN's symphony reflects on the inner turmoil that follows a collapse. One looks to the past, while the other examines the inner self. Each expresses the enduring wounds of war through a unique musical language.
In conclusion, PENG Xiuwen continued the compassionate perspective of the Eastern literati. Through the symbol of the Terracotta Warriors, he questioned the nature of power and the tragedy of war. NIELSEN used musical allegory to portray the psychological trauma following World War I. Though they came from different cultures, both composers revealed the same truth: war has repeatedly cast humanity into darkness, while music records, reflects, and seeks to heal.
Though war may not be before our eyes, these works remind us that history has not receded. Music bears witness.
In Gratitude to Professor LI Chen-Tung Learning the Erhu at National Taiwan University (Part 5)
Text and Image / CHEN Tuan-An
In 1969, I was part of a group of students from the National Taiwan University Chinese Orchestra (NTUCO) sent to study the erhu at the Da-Dong Dental Clinic. This visit marked the beginning of my profound connection with Professor LI Chen-Tung. Originally from Yancheng, Jiangsu, Professor LI studied dentistry at the National Defense Medical Center and later established his own practice. He showed exceptional musical talent and studied under YU Peng. He also worked frequently with the Broadcasting Corporation of China Chinese Orchestra and once joined them on a tour to the Philippines. His clinic became a gathering place for students of Chinese Music and colleagues from the music community, serving as a venue for both learning and exchange.
Professor LI's teaching centered on erhu solo works, drawing on the classics of LIU Tianhua, compositions by YU Peng, and also newly created pieces. He had a keen command of stylistic features, such as glissandi and other slide techniques, ornamentation, and bowing, and offered uniquely insightful interpretations. Even during the Martial Law period, when all contact with mainland China was cut off, he would listen closely to recordings and figure out new pieces on his own. The versions he reconstructed were often more insightful than the original scores. Beyond erhu repertoire, he also introduced Western Music and early 20th-century Chinese songs as teaching materials, broadening students' horizons.
Outside the classroom, Professor LI cared deeply about the future of Chinese Music education. He believed that Chinese Music belongs within the larger field of music and should therefore be integrated into music departments rather than set up as standalone divisions. He was open to new ideas, such as improving traditional instruments and using Western staff notation in Chinese Music. He reminded us that while trying new things was important, the distinctive sound of Chinese musical instruments should never be lost. He admired CHUANG Ben-Li's drive to innovate, yet would also gently caution that if the erhu's shape or tone changed too much, it might no longer be the erhu. As for notation, he saw it simply as a tool—helpful when needed, but not something to follow rigidly.
Professor LI was also active in composition and arrangement. He once arranged a piece for the NTUCO to enter in a competition, but because it was based on a so-called mainland composition, the judges refused to consider it. In 1972, however, his ensemble arrangement of the pipa classic Ambush from All Sides won first prize in the university division. He encouraged students to compose, offering support without interference. He was both a mentor and a companion to his students, often engaging them in discussions about the future of Chinese Music and its interaction with Western traditions. With his guidance, his students established the Da Shue Chinese Music Band, creating new works and recording albums. Professor LI served as a vital promoter, providing advice, offering rehearsal spaces, and helping with publication.
He was generous in sharing resources, recommending students for performances, and helping them pursue teaching or study opportunities. He never sought fame or gain; instead, he poured his energy into his students. While he lectured in Chinese Culture University and Soochow University, he also spared some time with students from National Taiwan University, which had no formal music department; he inspired several students who later became important figures in the field including CHEN Yu-Kang, WANG Cheng-Ping, and LIN Gu-Fang.
To me, Professor LI Chen-Tung was approachable, broad-minded, and wholly selfless. He was both an inspiring teacher and a true exemplar. He did not merely impart erhu technique; he encouraged students to embrace perspectives from both ancient and modern times, as well as from the East and West. Meeting such a master in my youth remains one of the greatest blessings of my life.