News

A proposal from the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra - Finland

19 November 2004

Jan Briers, Managing Director of Flanders Festival International and EFA vice-president received the following email from the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra who is preparing its June 2005 tour. Please read below the proposal of the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra which we are addressing to you now. You are kindly invited to get in contact with the orchestra at the address mentioned below. Dear Mr. Briers Hello. I would like to inform you that the music festival in Reims in France has asked the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra for a possible concert in Reims on the 24 June 2005. I am sending you the schedule that I am trying so hard to put together for the June 2005 tour of the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra tour of France. Please contact me if you need any further information as I still have dates available from the 10 June 2005 to the 22 June 2005 for concerts in France. Also I am able to cut the fee of the orchestra from 25,000 Euros to just 7,500 Euros for you and the orchestra will pay for its own accommodation. Please let me know if you require any CDs sent to you, or if you would like me to ring you to discuss this directly with you. With kind regards from Helsinki. Yours sincerely, Michael Mustillo PAMM Artists Management Edelfeltintie 14 00 150 Helsinki - Finland Tel./ Fax: (+358.9) 684 31 500 E-mail: pamm@kolumbus.fi _________________________ TAIPEI PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA tour in June 2005 1 June 2005 Wednesday Concert in VERSAILLES?? possible date ONLY one concert - still awaiting CONFIRMATION??????? 2 June 2005 Thursday Rehearsals in Sully 3 June 2005 Friday Concert at the Auvers Music Festival in France 4 June 2005 Saturday Concert at the Sully Music Festival in France 5 June 2005 Sunday Travel to Braunschweig, GERMANY 6 June 2005 Monday GERMANY 10:00 – 13:00 Rehearsals in Braunschweig 14:00 – 17:00 Rehearsals in Braunschweig 7 June 2005 Tuesday Braunschweig Music Festival GERMANY 10:00 - 14:00 Rehearsal CONCERT Ravel concert for the left hand. Conductor: Alexander Rudin 8 JUNE 2005 Wednesday Braunschweig, GERMANY 10:00 - 14:00 rehearsal CONCERT Rolf-Peter Wille with Tschaikowsky piano concerto Conductor: Alexander Rudin 10 JUNE 2005 Friday CONCERTGEBOUW 24 JUNE 2005 Reims Music Festival????? TAIPEI PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra The first sound of the Taipei Philharmonic in Boston Symphony Hall was electrifying….” Boston Globe: Richard Dyer October 10, 1995 ”The ensemble plays with precision and unity… the Taipei Philharmonic is of considerable quality…. This conductor (Henry Mazer) made Schubert come alive and touch our hearts again.” Wien – Kurier: Endler June 18, 1993 “Mazer and his musicians are totally committed…Mazer deserves special credit for his ensemble´s wonderful sound; a rich, romantic singing that was intensified by the acoustic of UBC´s hall. ” The Vancouver Sun: Michael Scott July 21,1990 Regarded as Taiwans internationally touring orchestra, to the fact that it has undertaken more foreign concert tours than any other of Taiwans professional symphonic orchestras. The Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra has from the very beginning of its establishment been determined to make and deliver music at the highest artistic level. The Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) undertook its forst concert tour of Europe in the early 1990s. It has consequently since made made four European tours, their most recent tour was to Russia in June 2004 where the orchestra appeared at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall for the White Nights Festival, and performed in Moscow at the new Moscow Performing Arts Centre, with internationally acclaimed Russian violoncellist Alexander Rudin. Its most recent tour of Europe was a Central European tour in September 2004, commencing its tour with the opening concert of the Warsaw Autumn Contemporary Music Festival with international acclaimed Finnish conductor Leif Segerstam, where the TPO performed the world premiere of Leif Segerstam´s 101 Symphony, dedicated to the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra and broadcast throughout Poland by Polish Radio, and concerts at the Wratislavia Music Festival in Wroclaw (Poland), Music Festival Sacrum-Profanum in Krakow (Poland) at the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic Concert Hall at the Smetana Hall in Prague for the Prague Spirit Music Festival, at the Budapest Music Festival and a number of other concerts throughout in Hungary and Poland. In total 8 concerts performing for 6,500 people. Past tours has seen the TPO, also, at the prestigious "Grosser Musikvereinsaal," Vienna in June 1993, one of the World's Top 5 concert halls, the Taipei Philharmonic gave the finest interpretation of Schubert which won high praise of Franz Endler, one of Vienna´s leading music critics. He wrote in the Vienna – Kurier Newspaper: “The ensemble plays with precision and unity... the Sinfonietta is of considerable quality... This conductor (Henry Mazer) made Schubert come alive and touch our hearts again.” In the summer of 1990, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra undertook their first overseas concert tour performances in the United States and Canada. In October 1995, the Taipei Philharmonic embarked on yet another tour to the United States for the discerning ears in Boston and New York. One of the performances was given at one of the United States leading concert halls, the "Boston Symphony Hall." The audience was elevated and impressed. The orchestra received a standing ovation, an utmost recognition rarely bestowed on foreign ensembles. New York and Boston media showered the Taipei Philharmonic with positive reviews, among them, Richard Dyer, the editor of the Music Page, Boston Globe, wrote: "The first sound of the Taipei Philharmonic in Boston Symphony Hall was electrifying…. The way the orchestra plays is a real tribute to Mazer’s musicianship. Mazer has a rare understanding of how ‘VerklarteNacht’ is constructed, how it should sound and the wallop it should pack…. They play with glowing sound, precision of intonation, absolute unanimity of impulse and rare commitment." In September 2001, led by conductor Tien-Chi Lin, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra embarked on a concert tour of Scandinavia to give two concerts in Stockholm, Sweden at the Berwald Concert Hall, and Helsinki, Finland at the Finlandia Concert Hall. This event was the first time that a Taiwanese symphony orchestra has ever been invited to perform in Scandinavia. In the following May of 2002, the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra undertook another tour to Germany and the Czech Republic, as a guest performer at a sold out concert at Dvorak Concert Hall during the Prague Spring International Music Festival with Czech pianist Martin Kasik, followed by concerts at the Braunschweig Classix Festival in Germany, and the Janacek May International Music Festival in the Czech Republic. When Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra performs on a foreign soil, it often blends in local Taiwanese music. Interestingly enough, these works of music are often embraced by European and American classic audience with warmth and acclaim, as are their interpretations on the orthodox, classic pieces. In August 2003, the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra returned to Europe for their Third European tour for critically acclaimed concerts in Estonia at the Tallinn Concert Hall and at the Estonian Music Festival Glasperlenspiel, followed by a Sold Out concert in Helsinki, Finland, this begin the orchestras second appearance in Helsinki. For the 2003 / 2005 seasons, the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra appointed the seasoned Russian conductor Alexander Rudin as its chief conductor. The Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra will be undertaking its Fifth European tour, touring France in June 2005, with an appearance at the Concertgebouw in The Netherland, a Grand Concert tour of Italy in September 2006 and a tour of the USA in 2007. The Taipei Philharmonic has won the hearts of music lovers and the support of corporate patrons and grown to be the most well-organized and best recognized run orchestra in Taiwan. The Taipei Philharmonic has come a long way under the baton of the late American conductor Maestro Henry Mazer. Mazer's selfless dedication, disciplinary technique, and an intricate understanding of the music, inspired the orchestra to produce sounds which were homogeneous in conception and interconnected at all times. Maestro Henry Mazer moulded the orchestra with daunting masterpiece by Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, ... to join the ranks for the world's finest symphony orchestras. Traveling around the world, this accomplished ensemble of professional musicians often generated awe and appreciation among their European and American audience. In August 1991, to explore more difficult and demanding symphonic scores, the orchestra expanded to be "Taipei Sinfonietta & Philharmonic Orchestra." This "double identity" gave it more flexibility in both size and variety of repertoire, and thus expanded its musical spectrum.