2018 Taiwan Connection Music Festival

Taiwan Connection (TC), co-founded in 2003 by Taiwanese classical Violinist Naiyuan Hu and ACF Chair Stanley Yen, follows the spirit of chamber music but does away with conducting allowing each musician to independently interpret the music while performing in harmony. From an orchestra of five to as many as 53, performing musicians gather annually in Taiwan to perform at the TC Music Festival. The 2018 TC Music Festival, debuted 4th August, marks the first of the festival’s International Chamber Music Series, a chamber orchestra of six maestros with performances in three cities; while the 2018 TC Symphony Orchestra, covers five cities of Taiwan, both nurturing the next generation of musicians and enthusiasts. Through the journey of music making, TC uses music as a form of encouragement to inspire the Taiwan society to move forward.

​Hu believes chamber music sits at the heart of classical music. In the 2018 International Chamber Music Series, five international musicians were invited to perform alongside Hu; they include Paul Neubauer, former Principal Violist and the youngest principal string player in history of the New York Philharmonic, Sung-Won Yang Cellist from Seoul, Marc Danel, Founder and First Violinist of the Quatuor Danel, Keith Robinson, founding member of the Miami Quartet and Cellist, and Scott Lee, Violist of the Miami String Quartet and Associate Professor of Viola at University of Missouri-Kansas City who was also the youngest winner of the 1996 Concert Artists Guild Competition in its 50-year history. Together they performed Brahms String Quintet No. 1 and No. 2. The six maestros, in addition, alongside TC’s Principal Cellist Victor Gao, as well as young emerging local musicians William Wei, Yi-hsin Lin, Shih-hsien Tsai, Tze-hung Su, Yun Han, and more performed a sensational innovative style of classical music. Summer, the busiest season of music festivals, it is especially rare to have so many outstanding musicians be united in one destination - Taiwan.

A conductorless orchestra is one where each performer in spite of musical instrument shares equal significance; it is where each member interacts and listens and reads one another’s body movements as they play. In 2010, Hu selected Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 as the highlight performance of the TC Music Festival. Although TC has established itself for seven years, played pieces from Haydn and Mozart, performing members questioned the selection due to the piece’s complex and rigorous structure especially without the presence of a conductor. After the second and third rehearsal, members began to appreciate the challenges which gave them the opportunity to deepen their interaction as they played and adjusted their pace in-sync. 

The performance was highly praised by audience and media; and in the following year, they challenged Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 without any doubt of their ability to perform well. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 was selected for 2018 and will be performed at the end of August. Hu believes that holding each performing member accountable for how the piece is presented is the true pursuit of art by each musician.

In the last two years, TC formed a smaller local chamber orchestra in effort to bring classical music to the rural campuses, hospitals and enterprises of Taiwan. In alignment to this mission, 49 of the 2018 TC Music Festival performers takes the performances across Taiwan. Hu envisions a future where classical music will be present in everyday lives, a pursuit he has continued for the last 14 years, and one which he will continue for years to come. 
  
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