Academy of Taiwan Strings

In early 90s’ in Taiwan, both economy and culture were booming on this island. It is found Taiwan an exciting place for exploration and lots of opportunities in this period. The violinist Sy-Joun Cheng finished his studies in Belgium and returned to Taiwan in founding Academy of Taiwan Strings having no conductor in Kaohsiung in 1990. The establishment of the ATS was monumental at that time because it provided one of the few chances for Taiwanese musicians to practice and perform together. Such opportunities furthered a great sense of solidarity as a result for the members to express their enthusiasm to help this ‘family’ grow stronger. The members would never hesitate to devote their talents for the ATS. In addition, members continuously improve the quality of the performance in a hope to become one of the top-level classical orchestras in Taiwan.

 

However, only relying on enthusiasm does not suffice for the progress of the Orchestra. To be able to concentrate on improving the overall quality of performance, stable funding is needed to sustain the ATS. Fortunately, after the establishment, the members of the ATS proactively sought every opportunity to perform for the Taiwanese audience. This effort soon helped the ATS gain the attention from the general public. Since 1994, Taiwan SECOM Group has been sponsoring Academy of Taiwan Strings, making the ATS the first private orchestra receiving long-term sponsorship from the non-governmental sector in Taiwan. Later in 2001, the ATS was selected by the Ministry of Culture as one of the ‘Teams of Cultivation’ (now the ‘teams of Cultivation’ project is under National Culture and Arts Foundation). Members of the ATS put the efforts into promoting classical music and perfecting their performance have made the ATS part of the history of classical music in Taiwan. Now, the ATS would like to share its performance to the other audiences all around the world, while continuing serving local Taiwanese.

 

Academy of Taiwan Strings, Shining for You

In order to cultivate people’s interest sharing the classical music, Academy of Taiwan Strings produces various concerts with different contents. The ATS aims at providing high quality performance and offering opportunities for audiences to discover new insights from classical music. Currently, there are eight series of programs offered by the ATS:

 

Classical Strings Concert Series

The changes of seasons not only reminds us the passing of time but also motivates us to improve ourselves from time to time. Every year’s Classical Strings concert provides a venue to let the musicians of the ATS demonstrate the progress they’ve enriched in the past one year.

 

Grand Master Concert Series

By working with international musicians, the ATS brings the grand masters’ beautiful musical notes to Taiwan. Whenever the melody begins, undoubtedly the local musicians and the audiences would be lead to inspire these notes, hence granting them novel ideas about the piece of work.

 

Taiwanese Musicians Series

In 2022, the Academy of Taiwan Strings introduces a new series entitled “Taiwanese Musicians Series,” aiming to pass the beauty of Taiwanese classical music.

 

Chamber Music Concert Series

Chamber music is like a fine art craft. To perform well, the musicians must think carefully about how to express and convey the composer’s thought to the audience. It requires an historical experience in music performance so as to interpret the styles and techniques of the composers wish. As a result, chamber music is often used to evaluate how mature a musician is.

 

Family Concert Series

Compared to pouring children with knowledge, cultivating the youngster’s interests such as music can make their lives better. To attract the youngster, the programmes are designed to include various interactive parts and interesting story-telling sessions. We hope these children will find an interest in classical music and music brings inspiration in their lives.

 

Taiwanese Folk Song Series

In 2018, the Academy of Taiwan Strings launched the “Taiwanese Folk Song Series,” in a bid to be a breath of fresh air in Taiwan with the combination of Taiwanese traditional songs and Western musical instruments.

 

The Academy of Taiwan Strings Violin Competition

The Academy of Taiwan Strings Violin Competition held biannually by the ATS, it attracts many junior musicians to participate in. This Competition draws a great attention from the younger generation because the process of the competition is extremely rigorous. As one of the most important violin competitions in Taiwan, many winners of the Competition later advanced to international competitions, such as Queen Elisabeth Competition, International Tchaikovsky Competition, and Sibelius Violin Competition and gained great reputations internationally.

 

The Rural Taiwan’s Project-

“Children in the Wonderland’’ and the “Tour of Teaching for Rural Taiwan” 

 

Weaving the Dream for Future with Music: A Charitable Music Education for Children living in Rural Part of Taiwan

As one of the oldest string orchestra in Taiwan, the ATS has gained its position in the field of classical music, and strong enough in capability to use its resources to create a positive impact to the society. Noticing that young children living in the rural of Taiwan did not have much access to enjoying and appreciating classical music, thus members of the ATS and the founder of the ATS Sy-Joun Cheng initiated a charitable project, ‘Children in the Wonderland – Irrigating the Forest of Music Project’ in 2010. 

 

This project was made possible with the help of donation from the private sector. Music courses is provided free for children in rural part of Taiwan in a hope to lead children in finding interest in classical music and take music as part of their lives. After years of work, the ATS gradually realized that it was difficult to overcome the rural-urban disparity especially education. As an Academy, the ATS does not have the power to formulate educational policies. This later brought the ‘The Tour of Teaching for the Rural Taiwan’ project into fruition.

 

With the experience they gained from learning how to play musical instrument, the project was aiming to help children in the rural part Taiwan become more resilient to all sorts of frustration and difficulties they might encounter in the future. It also hopes that the experience of learning new instruments can broaden the horizons of the youngster and helping them to have a richer imagination about their future. The ATS hopes that young children benefit from this project could contribute themselves to the next generation in Taiwan, and also use the skills they learnt to communicate their own cultures with others, further diversifying Taiwan’s art culture.