Prof. Fusao Kajima conducted the TNUA Orchestra Spring-Summer Concert 2016 at the National Concert Hall in Taipei on May 11.
TNUA President Prof. Yang Chyi Wen noted that history is the accumulated records of the ordinary people’s life and culture. Over the past 34 years since it was founded, TNUA has produced numerous outstanding artists who have lived and worked across Taiwan and the world, enriching global civilization.
The world of art has entered a new age where artists are keen to explore the possibilities of diversity through cross- eld experimentation with multiple materials and media. TNUA has long embraced such trend, and the May 11 concert featured a mix of multiple audio experiences.
Such diversity was underscored by the world premiere of a piece by Prof. Ching-Mei Lin, a composer of the new generation. Her “On the Sails of Life” is a tour de force of contemporary music in Taiwan, representing the e orts that TNUA has been making to integrate creativity and teaching.
Prof. Tsung-Hsien Yang, chairperson of the Departmentof Music, noted that previous spring-summer concerts had been all held on campus, but this year it was staged at the National Concert Hall in an unprecedented production in terms of both the size of the orchestra and the selection of the musical pieces.
Prof. Kajima, who was a conductor at the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra between 2010 and 2014, became a member of the TNUA faculty in 2014.
The concert started with Prof. Lin’s work, followed by Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op.90, ‘Italian’,” and Ottorino Respighi’s “Belkis, Queen of Sheba Suite.” It concluded with Respighi’s “Pines of Rome.”