The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) plans to establish a youth orchestra in 2023, further expanding its existing education programs to cultivate young musicians in Taiwan, Music Director Jun Märkl announced in Taipei on Wednesday.
The National Symphony Youth Orchestra is expected to make its debut at the end of the NSO’s 2022-2023 season in July next year, Märkl said at a news conference held to promote an upcoming concert.
“We want to help the young generation develop and to create in the next generation the highest standard of high potential we have here in Taiwan,” said Märkl, who took up the post of music director in January.
The 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 the 2021-2022 season, he said.
According to Märkl, the NSO will pick about 70 young musicians aged between 12 and 25 through auditions for the youth group in February to attend an education program at Northern Miaoli Art Center in Zhunan Township, Miaoli County before the youth orchestra makes its debut at the venue in July.
Märkl will lead the first group of young musicians, who are set to give four to five concerts around Taiwan, with guest violinist Carolin Widmann, according to the NSO.
The German violinist and her composer brother Jörg Widmann most recently worked with the NSO on a series of concerts at the beginning of the 2022-2023 season in August and September.
Märkl said he plans both contemporary and classic pieces for the youth orchestra’s first concerts, including Igor Stravinsky’s “the Firebird suite,” Erich Wolfgan Korngold’s “Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35,” Ottorino Respighi’s “Pini di Roma,” and Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa’s “Woven Dreams.”
Compared to existing youth orchestras in Taiwan, which are either based in a city or at a university, the National Symphony Youth Orchestra will be open to all young musicians in Taiwan and perform concerts in cities and towns across the country, Märkl said.
His vision for the youth orchestra is for the troupe and musicians taking part in the program to become cultural ambassadors for Taiwan, Märkl said.
Details of the auditions for the youth orchestra, which will tour Taiwan every summer and winter, will be published in January, according to the NSO.
Meanwhile, Märkl is scheduled to conduct the NSO in a concert featuring Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai at the National Concert Hall in Taipei on Friday.
At the news conference, Suwanai said her originally scheduled performance with the NSO was postponed for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she is “very happy” to continue her long relationship with Taiwan.
Suwanai, who at the age of 18 became the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990, said she first came to Taiwan in the 1990s at the invitation of a Taiwanese violinist who she studied with when 10 years old.
She has since visited Taiwan for “many, many years and (on) many different occasions,” the violinist said.
Suwanai will play Toru Takemitsu’s “Nostalghia” and Maurice Ravel’s “Tzigane” during Friday’s concert, adding that she has performed both pieces with Märkl and different orchestras.
The change from Takemitsu’s piece written in memory of Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky to Ravel’s Hungarian-themed piece during a concert is extremely difficult and special, Märkl said. “Only Akiko can do it.”
The concert on Friday will open with Claude Debussy’s “Nocturnes,” followed by Suwanai’s performance, first with strings for “Nostalgia” and then with the full orchestra for “Tzigane,” according to the NSO.
The orchestra will then play two more pieces by Ravel — “La Valse” and “Bolero” — during the second half of the concert, it said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel