With the support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, partnering with Sundays Live of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), will present a virtual concert by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) from Taiwan. It is the first time that Sundays Live features music by the Taiwanese group and composers. The NSO will perform Tyzen Hsiao’s “The Angel from Formosa,” Yu-Shian Deng’s “Bang Chhun Hong (Longing for the Spring Breeze)” (arr. by Tyzen Hsiao), Ching-Mei Lin’s “Song of Reverberant Emerald,” and I-Uen Wang Hwang’s “Hakka Fantasy.” Its premiere will take place online at 6 PM PST on May 2, 2021, free for worldwide audiences in both audio and video formats, via Mixlr and YouTube. It will also be available during the following week on KUSC, the largest classical music station in the US.
NSO, also internationally known as the Taiwan Philharmonic, was founded in 1986 and has been affiliated with the National Performing Arts Center Since 2014. Led by Artistic Advisor, Shao-Chia Lü (previously Music Director), NSO has become one of the leading orchestras in Asia and has toured regularly overseas including France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Austria, the US, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. In 2016 and 2018, NSO toured at great venues in the US, such as Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, Jacobs Music Center in San Diego, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and Meany Center for the Performing Arts in Seattle. These concerts won much acclaim.
This concert, conducted by Shao-Chia Lü, was recorded at Taiwan’s National Concert Hall. All the selections introduce various Taiwanese composers in two generations. Praised as “Taiwan's Rachmaninoff,” Tyzen Hsiao was a representative composer of the neo-Romantic school in Taiwan. In “The Angel from Formosa,” composed by Tyzen Hsiao, the French horn represents the elegant minds of angels and the main theme begins with flute-playing. In 1970, at the invitation of the renowned conductor Mei-Zhen Guo, Tyzen Hsiao arranged “Bang Chhun Hong,” a classic song composed by Yu-Shian Deng in 1933, for the Hwa-Mei Chamber Orchestra led by Professor Shu-De Li. Ching-Mei Lin’s “Song of Reverberant Emerald,” and I-Uen Wang Hwang’s “Hakka Fantasy,” illustrate Taiwan’s unique Hakka cultural images, such as Hakka folk songs, roundhouses, and Tung blossoms in the form of classical music.
Established in 1948, LACMA's Sundays Live is the longest-running live music broadcast in Los Angeles. Since 1990, it has presented weekly classical chamber music concerts and recitals at the Leo S. Bing Theater in LACMA. Due to the renovation project, Sundays Live has been featured at St. James Church on Wilshire Boulevard since 2019. It will begin a virtual season of newly recorded performances on April 25, 2021.