National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra has worked with Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government, again to conduct the 「2018 NTSO X Tun District International Art Festival」from 13th July to 25th August. There many performance groups from everywhere in Taiwan and some famous music groups from Europe, HongKong and China. The music performances will cover symphony, wind music, chamber orchestra, dance and musicals which will be arranged at the venues including NTSO Wufeng performance hall, performance hall of Tun District Art center and Dali Art square at software park etc. Those live performances will be outstanding and worth to being anticipated. This is a smart summer art and culture carnival for all the people.

Today (7th), NTSO and Cultural Affairs Bureau of the City Government collaborated to hold the press conference of 「2018 NTSO X Tun District International Art Festival」at the performance hall of Tun District Art center. The Director of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Ji-cheng Wang, Concertmaster of NTSO, Hsuan-yun Liu and Chief of Tun District Art center, Joao-hua Chen were there to join in the event.,The press conference was started by the performances of Music People and MAD Theater with lively atmosphere.

Director Wang said, let art fused into our daily lives is highly valued by Mayor Chia-lung Lin. We wished to leverage the project of「culture equality and art in countryside」 to make mountain, seaside, tun district and downtown full of the art performances to build Taichung as a city with events and carnivals. Then the tourists can enjoy the excellent performances when they visit Taichung. All the citizens, especially the students, are welcome to participate in such a great international art festival with to have a happy summer vacation.

NTSO was formed in 1945, it’s the symphony orchestra with the longest history in Taiwan. Since 1976, it started to have Wufeng as the base to promote the classical music and played a critical role in the development of classical music in Taiwan. By 2016, the「Wufeng music festival」was introduced and scaled up to be「NTSO X Tun District International Art Festival」 in 2017, which was positively influencing the local people to contact the art through a series of music, drama and dance performances. The achievements were highly recognized so NTSO will collaborate with the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government, again to introduce more programs comprehensively to implement the primary idea of managing Wufeng, deep cultivating Taichung when the orchestra was formed.

Concertmaster of NTSO, Hsuan-yun Liu said, in order to ensure the concept of「Manage Wufeng ‧Deep cultivate Taichung ‧Expand islandwide」, this international art festival will have 19 performances planned to cover all kinds of topics like magnificent symphony, passionate wind music, elegant chamber music, energetic musicals and active dances etc.

「2018 NTSO X Tun District International Art Festival」will invite the local groups like National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, NTSO Wind Orchestra, NTSO youth symphony orchestra, NTSO 2018 teenager wind orchestra, 2018 NTSO international teenager wind orchestra, Jia-jie Hsu Bassoon chamber orchestra, Taipei youth wind orchestra, Taipei citizen wind orchestra, Taoyuan symphony orchestra, Yilan youth wind orchestra, Saxophone ensemble affiliated to Yilan youth wind orchestra, Dancing group of National Taiwan Sport University, MAD Theater, Taiwan Youth Dancing theater, Youth Senior High School ( Dancing department an Movie/ TV department) and Sun son theater to perform; meanwhile, the famous Brassissimo Vienna, HongKong Youth symphony orchestra and China Horn Ensemble will be invited to have great performances as well.

The musicians involved in the performances are worldwide well-known Taiwanese conductor Mei-an Chen from the United States, famous domestic conductors Lien-chang Kuo, Yu-biou Hou, Singaporean conductor Han-hong Chen, HongKong conductor Wen-bin Ma, French conductor François Rousselot, 2nd tier conductors Yen-chang Liao, Wei-hsian Yu, Violinist Chen-yu Hsu, Saxophone players Chin-hsian Yen, Chia-hsu Tsai, Pianist Jia-hsian Lee, Taiwanese pianist young star Chi-ray Lee and many other musicians from worldwide to participate in the events.

「2018 NTSO X Tun District International Art Festival」is a summer art carnival introduced by the NTSO to provide the people the relaxed and joyful art activities. The tickets for one single event will be sold at the same rate but the group tickets for all 13 performances will be sod with a special price at NT$ 600 before 12th July（excluding the show on 14th July—《Three people, Yes or No (三人行不行)》）; the tickets for each scheduled performance will be started to sell from 13th June. Please check the promotional posters or visit NTSO official website at www.ntso.gov.tw or call at 04-23391141 for more details and the schedule of performances.