National Concert Hall
National Kaoshiung Center for the Arts Weiwuying
Swiss Music Night 音樂瑞士之夜 presents the first:
Taiwan International Cello Festival
2024 October 9th – 19th
After the "Swiss Music Night" was marking its tenth anniversary milestone in 2023 by annually celebrating the friendship through joining world-class musicians from Switzerland and Taiwan, in 2024, the "Swiss Music Night" is presenting the first "Taiwan International Cello Festival" (TWICF).
Under the artistic direction of Pi-Chin Chien the International cello-festival comprises several concerts, three days of master classes and workshops (about jazz-cello and about the history of violin-making).
A great happening entirely dedicated to the cello which takes part in two locations in the south and north, in the concert halls of the two largest cities of Taiwan, Kaohsiung and Taipei.
This year's festival will feature renowned cellists from Switzerland such as Christian Poltéra, Wen-Sinn Yang and Pi-Chin Chien, as well as guests from Germany such as Jens Peter Maintz, one of the most respected cellists of our time, and Stefan Braun, who has established the cello in the jazz like no other. These guests will be joined by some of Taiwan's most respected cellists, such as Victor Coo, Chu-Chuan Liu, Simon Thompson and Ching-Tzi Ko, and all together they will delight the audience with brilliant performances.
Concerts in Taipei and Kaohsiung
Oct.13 Sun. – 台北國家音樂廳 National Concert Hall (Recital Hall), Taipei
Three concerts
A Sunday entirely dedicated to the cello: In three fulminant concerts in the morning, afternoon and evening
the cello can be experienced in all its facets.
11 am – Cello solo recital
Of course a cello festival must start with the most precious for the cello: the solo suites by J.S. Bach. In the first concert Jens Peter Maintz and Wen-Sinn Yang perform Bach's solo Suites Nos. 3 and 5. William Walton's Passcaglia allows Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra to reveal the cello's wonderful lyrical side and Pi-Chin Chien will perform four movements from «7 Sounding Sculptures» composed for her by her husband Swiss composer Fabian Müller.
2.30 pm – Cello recital with piano
The second concert features known and also surprising masterpieces of the cello repertory. Jens Peter Maintz, Christian Poltéra, Pi-Chin Chien and Wen-Sinn Yang will perform works by Schubert, Schumann, Alexander Tcherepnin and late romantic Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. They are accompanied by distinguished taiwanese pianist Lina Yeh.
After the intermission buckle up! Get ready for a thrilling jazz experience with German virtuoso Stefan Braun on the cello, accompanied by pianist Mike Tseng.
7.30 pm – Grand final concert with all cellists participating in the festival
Take a wonderful bath in the glorious sound of the cello! From cello trio to big cello-ensemble the excellent cellists will present works by Couperin, Mendelssohn, Bizet, De Falla as well as the Swiss Suite by Fabian Müller, a charming suite of eight movements inspired by Swiss folk songs.
A special chapter at the end of the concert is entitled «Sound of Taiwan». You can look forward to wonderful and captivating music for large cello ensemble inspired by the musical tradition of Taiwan, composed and arranged by Fabian Müller and Che-Yi Lee.
Oct.12 Sat. 14.30 – 高雄衛武營表演廳 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts
Weiwuying (Recital Hall)
In a memorable concert the audience will experience a diverse overview of the first "Taiwan International Cello Festival" (TWICF) 2024 featuring the invited star guests and celebrated cellists!
Rediscovered by the legendary cellist Pablo Casals the most important repertory for all cellists are the solo suites by J.S. Bach. Jens Peter Maintz and Wen-Sinn Yang perform Bach's solo suites, showcasing some dance movements from the Suites Nos. 3 and 5. William Walton's Passcaglia allows Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra to reveal the cello's wonderful lyrical side. Then, get ready for a thrilling jazz experience with German virtuoso Stefan Braun on the cello, accompanied by pianist Mike Tseng.
After the break, it continues with elegant baroque music by François Couperin for cello trio and Mendelssohn's beloved Scherzo arranged for five cellos, demanding the highest level of virtuosity.
In the finale, "Sound of Taiwan," all eight cellists unite for Fabian Müller's musical interpretation of exquisite teas in a new version for cello octet and Lee Che-Yi's Taiwanese Folksong arrangements.
The Artists
Jens Peter Maintz (Germany)
Jens Peter Maintz enjoys an outstanding reputation as a versatile soloist, highly sought-after chamber musician, and committed cello teacher. Originally from Hamburg, he studied with David Geringas and took part in masterclasses with other great cellists such as Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikow, Frans Helmerson and Siegfried Palm. He was further influenced by his intensive chamber music study with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Walter Levin.
In 1994 he won first prize in the ARD international Music Competition, which had previously not been awarded to a cellist for 17 years.
He gathered several years of valuable orchestral experience as principal cello of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, and travelled the world as a member of the renowned Trio Fontenay. Since 2006 Jens Peter Maintz has been principal cello of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, on the invitation of Claudio Abbado.
His solo career has brought him into contact with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, Dmitry Kitajenko, Franz Welser-Möst, Reinhard Goebel and Bobby McFerrin. He has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig MDR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Den Haag Residenzorchester and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Alongside classical repertoire, Jens Peter Maintz has performed numerous works by contemporary composers from Isang Yun to Georg Friedrich Haas.
Since 2004 he has been professor at Berlin University of the Arts, where he teaches an exceptionally successful cello class. Many of his students are prize winners in important international competitions and some hold leading positions in major orchestras.
Jens Peter Maintz is in equally great demand as a chamber musician. He is a member of the prestigious 'Spectrum Concerts Berlin' concert series, and performs with chamber music partners such as Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Torleif Thedéen, Hélène Grimaud, Kolja Blacher, Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, and also the Artemis, Carmina and Auryn Quartets.
It is now 25 years since he formed the cello duo 'Cello Duello' with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Together they perform at the world's most eminent festivals, such as the Kronberg Festival, the Cello Biennale Amsterdam and the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival.
For his Sony Classical CD of solo works by Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly, Jens Peter Maintz was presented with an ECHO-Klassik award. His highly acclaimed recording of Haydn's cello concertos with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen was released on the Berlin Classics label.
In the 2016/17 season he can be heard at the Vivacello Festival in Moscow, the Tokyo Spring Festival in Japan, the Tonyeong Festival in South Korea, with the Hamburg Camerata in Hamburg, in Freiburg, Madrid and Berlin, and also with the Kuss and Mandelring Quartets. Cello Duello will also give several concerts, including the double cello concertos by Hoffmann
and Menotti with the Bavarian Chamber Orchestra Bad Brückenau.
Jens Peter Maintz plays the 'Ex-Servais' cello made by Giovanni Grancino in 1697.
Wen-Sinn Yang 楊文信 (Switzerland)
Enthusiasm for the unknown and constant research distinguishes Wen-Sinn Yang as one of the most versatile cellists of the present day. His performances not only revive the music of nineteenth-century cello virtuosos such as Adrien François Servais and Karl Yulievich Davydov, but also introduce his audiences to such modern composers as Aribert Reimann and Isang Yun.
Alongside his activities as an internationally renowned soloist under conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Shiao-Chia Lü, Grzegorz Nowak, Daniel Klajner, Yukata Sado and Michael Hofstetter and with such orchestras as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra the Shanghai Symphony, the NHK Tokyo, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Russian State Orchestra of Moscow, Wen-Sinn Yang is also a highly sought-after chamber music partner. His mastery and technical skill is not only strongly expressive but also particularly sensitive, which continues to open up ever-new listening perspectives.
Wen-Sinn Yang’s wide-ranging repertoire is documented on more than 30 CDs. These include not only the principal works for violoncello by Boccherini, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Saint-Saens, Lalo, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák, but also compositions by Henri Vieuxtemps, Frank Martin, Leonid Sabaneev and Sofia Gubaidulina. Many of these are distinguished as premiere recordings.
Yang, in cooperation with Bavarian Television, recorded the six solo suites of J.S. Bach in 2005. This DVD, released by Arthaus, was praised by critics for its profound awareness of historically informed interpretation performed on modern instruments.
Yang has been Professor of Violoncello at the Academy of Music and Theater in Munich since 2004 and also regularly conducts international master courses.
Christian Poltéra (Switzerland)
Christian Poltéra was born in Zürich. After receiving tuition from Nancy Chumachenco and Boris Pergamenschikow, he studied with Heinrich Schiff in Salzburg and Vienna.
As a soloist he works with eminent orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Chamber Orchestra of Europe under such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Andris Nelsons and Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
He also devotes himself intensively to chamber music together with such musicians as Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mitsuko Uchida, Lars Vogt, Kathryn Stott, Esther Hoppe and Ronald Brautigam, and with the Auryn, Zehetmair and Hagen Quartets. Together with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Antoine Tamestit, Christian Poltéra has formed a string trio, the Trio Zimmermann, which performs at most prestigious concert venues and festivals all over Europe.
In 2004 he received the Borletti-Buitoni Award and was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist.
He is a regular guest at renowned festivals (such as Salzburg, Lucerne, Berlin, Edinburgh and Vienna) and made his BBC Proms début in 2007. Christian Poltéra’s discography, which has won acclaim from the international press, reflects his varied repertoire that includes the concertos by Dvorak, Dutilleux, Lutoslawski, Walton, Hindemith and Barber as well as chamber music by Prokofiev, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert.
Christian Poltéra teaches at the Lucerne University. He plays a Antonio Casini cello built in 1675 and the famous "Mara" Stradivari from 1711.
Pi-Chin Chien 簡碧青 - artistic director (Switzerland-Taiwan)
Pi-Chin Chien is a sought-after, internationally active soloist and chamber musician. She has performed in major concert venues around the world, including New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic and Tonhalle Zurich. She appears as a soloist on recordings with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman, Ruben Gazarian and Wen-Pin Chien.
Pi-Chin Chien has performed and recorded world premieres of a number of violoncello concertos and chamber music works, including several compositions dedicated to her.
In 2015, Pi-Chin enjoyed great success with “Taiwan Rhapsody”, an album of romantic-symphonic rhapsodies for violoncello and orchestra based on folksongs of her native Taiwan, written by her husband, the Swiss composer Fabian Müller and released on the Sony Classical label. On this recording she is accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London under the direction of Wen-Pin Chien. In January 2015, Pi-Chin premiered “Taiwan Rhapsody” together with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. Further performances took part in 2017/18 concert season in Germany, including the Berlin Philharmonic, and in 2019 in the National Concert Hall.
2019 the successful album "Tea for Two Cellos" (Solo-Musica) was released. Current albums are "Strings on the Move" (2020), as well as the premiere recording of the complete work for cello and piano by the Swiss late-romantic composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (former professor at the Geneva Conservatory and founder of the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze), which was released 2022.
Pi-Chin Chien is a champion of works by lesser known composers. In the 90ties Pi-Chin Chien contributed significantly to the rediscovery of the late romantic Swiss composer Paul Juon with numerous concerts of his chamber music and first recordings of his cello concerto "Mysterien", the Triple Concerto "Epidodes Concertantes" and his cello sonata.
In 2016, the Triple Concerto was first performed in Asia at the National Concert Hall in Taipei.
She performed at the Kaiser-Otto Medal award ceremony in honor of the late former German President Richard von Weizsäcker, and twice (1998 and 2016) at the renowned concert series at Taiwan’s Presidential Office on invitation of the President of Taiwan.
A native of Taiwan, Pi-Chin Chien studied in Zurich, Lucerne and Prague, graduating with a soloist’s diploma with distinction.
Pi-Chin Chien is the artistic director of the "Swiss Music Night" concert series in Taiwan and of the "Confluence" Music Festival in Zurich.
Stefan Braun (Germany)
Stephan Braun is a cellist who surprises the audience, whether with his band deep strings, his jazz trio or as a soloist. Extraordinary playing techniques, rhythmic sophistication and melodic ingenuity show a completely new type of cello playing of the 21st century.
Stephan worked together with artists like Melody Gardot, Nils Landgren, Gil Goldstein, Chris Hinze, Don Thomson, Till Broenner, Giora Feidman, Kristjan Randalu, the CCJO and the NDR Bigband. He won the 1st price of the International Jazz Competition in Bucharest and played worldwide at festivals and concert halls, like Vienna Opera House, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Paris Olympia Theatre, Pori Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival, New Directions Cello Festival Boston, Cello Akademie Rutesheim, North Sea Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival.
He is teaching at the "Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler" in Berlin and at the "Anton Bruckner Privat University" in Linz. He currently resides in Berlin.
Ching-Tzi Ko 柯慶姿 (Taiwan)
Native of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Doctor of Musical Arts, University of Washington, USA. Diploma in Music Performance and Music Teacher from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, Germany. She was the top student in the nation in the university entrance examination and was guaranteed to be the first choice for admission to the Taipei National University of the Arts. Over the years, she has been invited to perform concertos with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Washington State Youth Symphony, Tainan City Symphony Orchestra, Tainan Philharmonic, and the Department of Music at Tainan National University of the Arts. In addition to performing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra musician, he is also frequently invited to give master classes, perform, teach, be interviewed, and adjudicate at colleges and universities, radio stations, music competitions, and music camps. She has been invited by the Seattle Cello Society to play solo in concerts in honor of Bach's birthday. Interned with the Radio Philharmonie des NDR Hannover, performing and recording. She won the first prize in the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra Honors Competition, the first prize in the Washington State Young Artist Competition, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra's "New Talent" award. He has served as Principal Cello of the Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Associate Principal Cello of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal of the Tainan City Symphony Orchestra.
She was taught by Klaus Storck, Klaus Heitz, Toby Saks and Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel. Master classes with world-class musicians such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Janos Starker, Nathaniel Rosen, Ralph Kirshbaum, Zara Nalsova, Wolfgang Boettcher and Alban Berg Quartett. Participated in the following festivals: Carl Flesch Akademie Festival (Germany), Banff Festival (Canada), Aspen Music Festival (USA), Towson University World Cello Congress III (USA), RNCM Manchester Cello Festival (UK), Kronberg Cello Festival (Germany), Pablo Casals Cello Festival (Germany). Pablo Casals Cello Festival in Kronberg, Germany, Leonard Rose Cello Festival in Maryland, USA, Vienna Music Festival in Austria, Chamber Music Festival in Munich, Germany.
She teaches cello, chamber music, string studies, basic music training, mandolin orchestra, music appreciation, and music and life. She has taught at the Department of Music Education of National Taichung University of Education and National Kaohsiung University, and is currently a full-time associate professor at the Department of Music of National Tainan National University of the Arts.
Chu-Chuan Liu 劉姝嫥 (Taiwan)
Chu Chuan Liu is one of the last pupils of the great Austrian cellist Senta Benesh at the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien (Vienna), and received her artist diploma from Konservatorium d. Stadt Wien with highest honor(Auszeichnung). During the time in Europe she has also performed in master classes for several renowned cellists: Michel Strauss (Paris), Heidi Litchauer (Salzburg), Christopher Henkel (Freiburg) among others, and for a short period of time, studied Viola da Gamba with Jose Vasquez and participated in chamber music seminars lead by the Wiener Schubert Trio.
In 1993 LIU went on to study with Stephen Kates at the Peabody Institute on a scholarship. As member of the Peabody Camerata , she then returned to Europe to perform under the baton of Maestro Rostropovich at the festival of Evian, France in 1994.
She was awarded ”Young Musician of the Year” by the cultural minister as she went back to Taiwan in 1995, and started giving concerts both as solo and chamber cellist. Once a very enthusiastic performer for contemporary music, she has appeared with CCOT (Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei) in music festivals in New York, Boston, Vancouver, Shanghai, and gave world premieres for solo works by Asian and European composers alike.
Chu-Chuan Liu is cellist of the Po-Ya Piano trio and has been invited to collaborate with chamber music society of Minnesota and cellist Alexander Rudin, violinist Chao-Liang Lin, pianist Ching-Yung Hu at their chamber concerts in Taiwan. Currently associate professor at the Taipei National University of the Arts – a forefront institution of its kind in Asia, LIU is also founder and artistic director of CCliu’s Cello Ensemble.
Simon Thompson 上地彩門 (Japan)
Simon was born in Okinawa, Japan, and moved to the UK at the age of 6, where he first began playing the cello. He studied with Alexander Boyarsky at the Purcell School and the Royal College of Music in London, where he graduated with First Class Honours, and was a prize winner at the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Croatia.
Shortly before graduating, he was invited to take part in the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra in Switzerland, where he played the cello solo part of Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" under the direction of Pierre Boulez. This experience subsequently lead to his new found love for ensemble music playing, big and small, and has involved himself in as many chamber and orchestral music as possible, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Mahler Chamber Academy and coming back to play at the Lucerne Festival in four separate seasons.
Around the same time, he had heard a recital of one of Mstislav Rostropovich's last students, Ivan Monighetti, and decided to move and study with him at the Basel Hochschule für Musik in Switzerland, where he completed his Master’s Degree.
After graduation, he played in orchestras such as the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the London Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, and a season with the Hessisches Staatsorchester as a Second Principal Cellist, where he played with the world's leading conductors and soloists, and many more.
Victor Coo 高炳坤 (Philippines-Taiwan)
Victor Coo, prize-winning cellist, has been hailed as one of the great artists of his generation, a gift to the cultural scene in the Philippines, his native country, and more broadly to the international music world. His mesmerizing interaction with audiences as he plays and his accomplishments have made him a captivating performer and an inspiration for aspiring young cellists.
Coo is a third-generation Seventh-day Adventist musician, the grandson of Eliseo Paulino Arevalo, a pioneer SDA musician in the Philippines. Victor's mother, Corazon Arevalo Coo, a daughter of Elizeo, is an educator and pianist who was a music administrator and has taught music lessons for many years; his brother and sister, Jonathan and Cecilia, are well-known, highly praised performers on piano and violin, respectively.
Victor began playing the cello before enrolling in the Philippine High School for the Arts. He first gained national attention when he performed in the winners' concert at the National Competition for Young Artists in the Philippines at age fourteen. Coo subsequently won the Haydn Cello Competition in Manila and then spent a summer at the Interlochen Arts Camp in the U.S., where he was a winner in the concerto competition and was featured as a soloist with the World Youth Orchestra.
He continued his study at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, where he won several competitions and awards. He completed a B.A. in music at Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University, and then earned an M.Mus. at the University of Maryland. He was the recipient of the Neil Tilkens Music Award at CUC and the winner of the Homer Ulrich Award's competition at UM. He completed a D.M.A. in cello performance at Michigan State University in 2009.
During his time at CUC and UM he was principal cellist in and soloist with the New England Youth Ensemble. He toured internationally and played in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall while in that ensemble
He attended the Ecole d' Art Americanes de Fountainebleau in France in 2003 on full scholarship, where he won a Chamber Prize as part of the Kodaly Duo. In a return in 2006, he won the Casadesus Prize. He then performed in October of that year in New York under the auspices of Ecole d' Art Americanes de Fountainebleau.
In 2005, Coo debuted with the Manila Philharmonic, playing the Dvorak concerto and receiving an ovation few cellists have been given in that country. In 2007 he again played in Manilla, giving a historic totally unaccompanied recital that earned a standing ovation.
Lina Yeh 葉綠娜 - piano (Taiwan)
For more than fourty years Lina Yeh has been one of Taiwan’s most beloved pianists. Her preeminence as this country’s most unique artist came into sharp focus in 1990 when she received the National Cultural Award in recognition of her achievements in the performing arts.
The artist’s refined musicianship in performing the classical repertoire as well as 20th -century Chinese music has won them great critical acclaim. Her latest albums having been released on the Philips and PolyGram and Universal labels. Having a diverse cultural and educational background and having graduated from and studied at schools as different as Salzburg, Hanover, Banff, and Juilliard, she has distinguished national careers as professor (Taiwan Normal University), writer and broadcaster as well. She has also worked on contemporary music with John Cage and Robert Aitken. In 2010 and 2012 she has received the “Golden Melody” award for the “best performer” and best “classical music album “. And she also received the “Friendship Medal ”in 2010 and 2015 the “most outstanding professor “ in Arts .
Tseng-Yi Tseng 曾增譯 - jazz piano (Taiwan)
Master of Music in Jazz at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel in Belgium.
During his studies, he was deeply influenced by the free jazz concepts of jazz pianist/modern composer Kris Defoort. During his studies, he was invited to perform at various events, such as the "Taiwan Night" by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' representative office in Europe and Belgium (2007), the trio performance with jazz harpist John Ruocco (2008) and the double piano performance with Italian pianist Nicola Andrioli (2009). (2009) with Italian pianist Nicola Andrioli.
After returning to Taiwan in 2009, she has been actively involved in recording, performing and teaching, and was invited to be the keyboardist of the World Orbit Orchestra "Orbit Folks".
Currently, she teaches at the National Tainan National University of the Arts and the Silk Chukong Jazz Workshop, where her unreserved teaching attitude is loved by her students.
In addition, he has been invited to participate in the tours of many famous artists, such as Yoga Lin, Tai Zhenxiao, Jianya Tsai, and Cynthia Weng ......, and when accompanying them, he integrates jazz elements into the music, which brings out a different style of popular music.
He specialises in jazz piano, combining improvisation, variations and trio performances to present a free and fluid style of music creation.
He is the only musician in Taiwan who plays the electric organ, which has a unique sound, in his compositions.
In 2014, he won the 25th Golden Melody Awards for his album "Zeng Zeng Zeng. In 2014, he won the "Best Album" and "Best Composer" in the performance category for his album "Tseng Tseng Tseng-Trio" at the 25th Golden Melody Awards, marking a milestone in his creative journey.
Che-Yi Lee 李哲藝 - composer (Taiwan)
Lee Che-yi has composed about 2,000 works and arranged nearly 5,000 works of various types. His works include musical theatre, dance drama, stage play, all kinds of cross-border theatre, children's drama, film and TV commercial soundtracks. Since the beginning of his professional career, he has conducted more than 2,000 performances and has composed songs, arrangements, and soundtracks for hundreds of professional performing groups, both at home and abroad. He has also performed at dozens of international arts festivals and has produced about 110 albums.
Lee has been nominated for the Golden Melody Awards (GMA) 40 times. He won the Best Composer Award at the 23rd GMA and the Best Creation Award at the 27th GMA. He also received the Best Annual Dance Music Award at the Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2015, and the Best Classical Music Album Award of China’s Top Ten Hot Records twice. He was one of the finalists in the Chinese Music Awards 2010 for the Best Classical Music Album Award.
Now serving as Music Director and Resident Composer of One Song Orchestra, Lee was Resident Composer of National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan in 2016, and Music Director of the 28th to 30th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music.
Fabian Müller - composer - artistic co-director (Switzerland)
Fabian Müller is one of the leading Swiss composers of his generation. His works were premiered by great musicians of our time such as David Zinman, Andris Nelsons, Sir Roger Norrington, Andrey Boreyko, Christopher Hogwood, Steven Isserlis, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Antonio Meneses and Henning Kraggerud, and were heard in the prestigious halls of the world including the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Tonhalle Zurich, the KKL Luzern, St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Teatro Colón.
He got commissions from the Lucerne Festival, the Interlaken Music Festival, Cully Classique or the Vestfold Festspillene in Norway, and his works were performed at the Festival La Chaise Dieux in France, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado or at the Festival Internacional de Ushuaia in Argentina.
Numerous CD recordings show his versatile oeuvre with among others, the Philharmonia Orchestra (David Zinman), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra or the Petersen Quartet Berlin (for ARS Produktion, col legno, Capriccio, Sony Classical, etc.).
Following his cello studies at the Zurich Conservatory with Claude Starck, Fabian Müller studied composition in Zurich and the USA, where in 1996 he won the Jacob Druckman Award for Orchestral Composition. In 2006, he received a cultural award from the Canton of Zurich and, in 2012, the Zollikon Art Prize for his work to date. In 2016 he was one of the nominees of the Swiss Music Prize of the Federal Office of Culture.
In addition to his work as a composer, he is interested in folk music. For ten years (1991-2002), he worked on the publication of the Hanny Christen Collection, a ten-volume folk music anthology with over 10,000 tunes from the 19th century. www.swisscomposer.ch
Dai-Ting Chung 鍾岱廷 - luthier (Taiwan)
Born in Tainan, he majored in materials engineering at university. He has dedicated many years to the systematic analysis, research and identification of violins, digitizing violin data, building large-scale violin collections and consulting on violin transactions. He is well-regarded in the international violin community.
In 1989, he began learning piano making under the guidance of teachers Wang, Shengzhe and Wang, Lichun. In 1990, he completed his first violin. In 1992, he graduated from the Department of Materials Engineering of Feng Chia University.
Between 1995 and 1997, he furthered his expertise at The Chimneys Violin Making School in Pennsylvania, USA, under of Edward Campbell, President of the American Violin Association. In 1997, he interned at The Kot’s Violin Shop in Philadelphia, where he learned how to make violins and bows.
1999 opened the Ten Sun Yu violin shop in Tainan City.
2002 the designated Instrument repairer of the Chimei Foundation.
2004 Violin Consultant of Chimei Museum.
2012 Member of EILA (International Association of Violin and Bow Makers)
2014 Senior Violin Consultant of Chimei Museum.
2016 International Honorary Member of AFVBM(American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers)
2017 Member of the Board, Chimei Museum Foundation
2022 foreign consultant of ALI (Associazione Liutaria Italiana)
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Artistic direction „Swiss Music Night“
Pi-Chin Chien & Fabian Müller
© by Swiss Music Night in Taiwan