ABOUT

Founded in 1986, the Taiwan Philharmonic, also known as the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at home, is hailed as one of the best orchestras in the Asian Region. In April 2014, the NSO became an affiliate orchestra to the National Performing Arts Center. Led by renowned conductor Jun Märkl as its music director starting in January 2022, the NSO has increased the country's cultural richness and music educational strength throughout Taiwan.

In April 2023, the Taiwan Philharmonic embarks on a historic U.S. tour making debuts in NYC, DC, and the Chicago area. The ensemble is honored to be one of the first international orchestras to be presented by the New York Philharmonic in David Geffen Hall, led by new Music Director Jun Märkl. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as, “a first-rate ensemble, one of Asia’s best,” the Taiwan Philharmonic launches the tour in New York City with a chamber music concert at Alice Tully Hall with musicians of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Additional performances include at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., presented by Washington Performing Arts; NYC's David Geffen Hall, presented by the New York Philharmonic; and at Wentz Concert Hall in the western Chicago suburb of Naperville with recipient of the prestigious 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, Taiwanese-American violinist Paul Huang.

2018 North American Tour
The Taiwan Philharmonic embarked on a North American tour in fall 2018 stopping in Costa Mesa (10/30), San Diego (10/31), Seattle (11/3), and San Francisco (11/5). The orchestra, led by Maestro Shao- Chia Lü, launched the tour by returning to Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa nearly two years after their highly-acclaimed United States debut at the same hall in December 2016. This time the performance featured star pianist Stephen Hough performing Liszt’s first piano concerto. The concert name, “From Formosa,” gave a nod to the historic republic on the island of Taiwan while the music traced Taiwan’s classical music tradition with Taiwanese composer Gordon Chin’s “Dancing Song” from Three Aboriginal Songs for Orchestra. The orchestra continued their tour to San Diego and Seattle with Hough, finishing in San Francisco with 24-year-old Taiwanese violinist Yu-Chien Tseng. Tseng, rapidly gaining attention on international stages and signed to the legendary record label Deutsche Grammophon, performed Barber’s intensely lyrical violin concerto with the orchestra.

More about the Taiwan Philharmonic
The NSO with 99 members presents a 40-week musical season of approximately 75 concerts/chamber recitals and one opera production each year. It also launched educational programs and outreach projects constantly. Tour performances are regularly offered throughout Taiwan and overseas. It has toured to Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Geneva, Milan, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sapporo, Tokyo, Yokohama, Seoul, Hong Kong and major cities in China.

The NSO works with internationally acclaimed conductors, such as Lorin Maazel, Sir. Neville Marriner, Krzysztof Penderecki, Rudolf Barshai, Leonard Slatkin, Christopher Hogwood, Oleg Caetani, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Michael Sanderling, Vassily Sinaisky, Osmo Vanska, Hans Graf and soloists, including Midori, Vadim Repin, Hilary Hahn, Ray Chen, Yo-Yo Ma, Gautier Capuçon, Alban Gerhardt, Mischa Maisky, Sol Gabetta, Martin Grubinger, Louis Lortie, Kun-Woo Paik, Stephen Hough, Stephen Kovacevich, Sabine Meyer, Reinhold Friedrich, Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang and many others.

The NSO has extended its artistic reach, involving in theater and opera productions, such as working with Lin Hwai-min, the world-renowned choreographer and founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Austrian digital artist Klaus Obermaier, and opera stage directors Tobias Richter, Moffatt Oxenbould, Hans-Peter Lehmann, Andreas Homoki and James Robinson. In addition to its record-breaking semi-stage concert operas Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Elektra, the NSO has collaborated with world-class opera houses for its multinational productions, such as Der Rosenkavalier (Deutsche Oper am Rhein, 2007), Carmen (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Norwegian National  Opera and Opera Australia, 2009), Madama Butterfly (Opera Australia, 2012), Fidelio (Operahaus Zurich, 2015) as well as in-house production DieWalkure (2013), Salome (2014) Othello (2016), Il Trittico (2017) and Parsifal (2018).

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