National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) Presents a Contemporary Music Platform － Continues the Presentation of Excellent Arts

Since its great success of Grand Opening last year, Weiwuying has been covered by internationally-renowned media such as New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, etc. In 2019, a brand new programme will be launched. The Center set up a Contemporary Music Platform focused on music among other art forms. It is also the last of Weiwuying’s three performing arts platforms; hoping to present a co-production between Weiwuying and Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Turandot; Cloud Gate 2 presents the world debut of 22° Lunar Halo; The Battle of Dragon City as presented by the 90-year-old Ming Hwa Yuan Arts and Culture Group; and the series of Netherlands Focus. Assuming the lead role, Weiwuying aims to combine domestic and international performing groups via multi-faceted workshops, talks, and forums to install a complete ecosystem for the performing arts in Taiwan.

22° Lunar Halo (Photo credit: 李佳樺)

Weiwuying – TIFA Contemporary Music Platform

Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA) will be presented for the first time by Weiwuying and two other national performing arts centres in Taiwan, with hopes to attract fans to the Contemporary Music Platform in April. There will be a combination of performances, a contemporary music academy, and international linkage to creators, performers and audiences. The project hopes to excel the energy of the performing arts centre and will help to promote and foster contemporary art works.

Stereoscope (Photo credit: Pierre Gondard)

Ensemble KNM Berlin Stereoscope is a Music-Theatre-Installation concert. The performing space will be open for the audience to step in and to discover music, dance and installation work from nearby or from a distance simply by walking around. In addition, electronics musician Dickson Dee from Hong Kong collaborates with Nanyin artist Cai Yayi  using traditional Nanyin music and impromptu electronics music, to produce The Modern-Day Flavours of Nanyin and Naamyam. Following the same vein, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, which has been acclaimed by CNN as “one of the most avant-garde music groups in Hong Kong,” will perform with the Taiwanese-born conductor Liao Xiao Lin to break the boundaries of forms and bring variety to the contemporary music with The Sound of Bloom’s Epoch.

Co-production Opera, Turandot－Asia Debut

In April 2019, a grand-scale co-production of Weiwuying and Deutsche Oper am Rhein will astonish all the audiences in Taiwan with Puccini’s Turandot! The debut was staged in Germany in 2015 and later charmed audiences from all walks of life with another 26 consecutive performances throughout Europe. This opera is directed by a renowned Chinese-born director Li Huan-hsiung, also the first Chinese director in the German opera house. The scheduled three performances of Turandot were sold out within two weeks. The preview performance, which was added by Weiwuying, was also sold out in two days. The demand is evidently competitive.

Turandot (Photo credit: Hans Joerg Michel)

Training Local Artist Co-Project

Training the Local Artists Co-Project is a collective production by Weiwuying, National Theatre and Concert Hall, and National Taichung Theatre. In this new dance piece 22° Lunar Halo, Cheng Tsung-lung and Cloud Gate 2 jointly draw on this natural phenomenon to explore the themes of human anxieties, struggles, desires, love and loneliness in the lunatic, ever-changing world. Set to music by the internationally renowned Icelandic band Sigur Rós; Cheng, integrating origami and with an illuminating screen, unfolds an exotic modern fable, as dancers, like mystic animals, squeeze one another, creep, mate, fight and kill on the deep-black mirrored floor.

Under National Performing Arts Center’s family, the three centres also co-produced  A Million Miles Away by Huang Yi Studio, which will be presented in May at Weiwuying Performing Arts Center. Weaving together rich layers of graceful body movements, A Million Miles Away debunks the borders of technology and choreography, sharing moments in life that carry us forward.

Internationally Renowned Groups Soon to Arrive in Kaohsiung

In May, Anatol Ugorski will make his Taiwan debut, performing classical works of Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Liszt for all Weiwuying’s audiences. The intrinsic aspects of his artistic personality and supreme talent have brought the New York Times to deem Ugorski an “exceptional pianist”.

Shut Eye (Photo credit: Rahi Rezvani)

In June, Weiwuying presents a series of three programmes with Netherlands Focus. First, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with the newly appointed chief conductor Lahav Shani and violinist Renaud Capuçon will bring the intense energy of its performances and innovative audience approach to perform the symphonies of Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich in Kaohsiung, after their last show in Taiwan ten years ago. Next, the Piano Duo by Lucas and Arthur Jussen will lure us with Chopin and Ravel. Their debut CD won them the Edison Klassiek Audience Award and their album was also listed by Gramophone amongst The 50 Greatest Mozart Recordings. Last but not least, Nederlands Dans Theatre, founded for almost six decades and listed by French Le Figaro as “one of the seven wonders in the world of dance”, has built a rich repertoire of over 600 ballets and will soon present Safe and Houses, Solo Echo, and Shut Eye at Weiwuying.

Click here to visit National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts’ website.