Taiwan Philharmonic’s D.C. Debut at the Kennedy Center at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

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2. Taiwan Philharmonic’s D.C. Debut at the Kennedy Center

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a first-rate ensemble, one of Asia’s best,” the Taiwan Philharmonic makes its debut appearance at the Kennedy Center presented by Washington Performing Arts. In a wide-ranging program combining new work from Taiwan with European classics, celebrating the vibrancy and diversity of cultures in Taiwan, this concert is led by noted German conductor Jun Märkl, the orchestra’s newly-appointed music director. The Taiwan Philharmonic (known as the National Symphony Orchestra in its homeland) serves as an official ambassador of Taiwanese culture and regularly commissions and performs new work by Taiwanese composers. This program opens with the U.S. premiere of just such a work - Ebbs and Flows (co-commissioned by Washington Performing Arts) from Ke-Chia Chen, an international award winner, a frequent collaborator with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music. 

The program then travels some 6,000 miles and more than a century back in time with German Romantic composer Max Bruch’s ever-popular Scottish Fantasy, a work for violin and orchestra inspired by Scottish folk songs. Joining the orchestra as violin soloist on the Bruch is the Taiwanese-born Avery Fisher Career Grant honoree (and much-adored Washington Performing Arts veteran) Paul Huang. Concluding the globe-trotting program are multiple works from the French classical repertoire, one of Maestro Märkl’s most celebrated specialties.

Tickets to this performance on April 19  are available online at washingtonperformingarts.org.