TNUA student Wu Yao-yu has earned the top honor in the 53rd International Competition for Young Conductors, while an alumnus, Chou Tung-Yen, has won a prize at the World Stage Design 2013.
Wu, 24, a graduate student at the Department of Music, won the first prize in the contest in Besancon, France last month. A total of 296 young conductors from 46 countries took part in the competition.
Wu is the second musician from Taiwan who has taken the first prize in the competition since Lu Shao-Chia, now music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, won it in 1988.
In Cardiff, Wales, Chou's video, “Emptied Memories,” won the Best Interactive & New Media award in the four-yearly international festival celebrating performance design last month.
Chou, who graduated from the Department of Theatre Arts, was among eight Taiwan artists whose works were selected for competition in various categories in the festival. Most of them are TNUA alumni.
The last artist from Taiwan to win a prize in the festival was Prof. Chien Lee-Zan, dean of the TNUA School of Theatre Arts, who took the Silver Award in Lighting Design at the World Stage Design 2009 in Seoul, Korea.
TNUA Prof. Mewas Lin described Wu as the most talented student she has seen in the past 20 years or so. He demonstrates the kind of musical sensitivity that is rarely seen in students of his age, Prof. Lin said.
Back at TNUA, Wu conducted an opera on October 4 and 5 during the annual Kuandu Arts Festival, his first concerts since winning the important prize.