On August 2, the Taipei Music Academy & Festival 2020 brings together 35 outstanding young musicians and a stellar international faculty for a week of live orchestral performance, meaningful mentorship, intensive coaching, public masterclasses and more in the idyllic mountainside setting of the National Taipei University of the Arts. Reaping the benefits of Taiwan’s extraordinarily effective response to the pandemic, the program’s return represents a rare, perhaps unique opportunity for emerging classical artists to experience live, in-person training and performance anywhere in the world this summer.
Founded by Cho-Liang Lin in 2019, this year’s festival will offer attendees a week of daily individual coaching sessions, public masterclasses, orchestral rehearsals, mock auditions, audition tutorials and more, all capped by a weekend of public orchestral concerts at Tainan’s Chi Mei Museum and Taipei’s National Concert Hall. Instructors include Lin (violin), Carter Brey (cello), David Chan (violin), Shih-Kai Lin (violin), Philip Setzer (violin), Yu-Chien Tseng (violin), Hsin-Yun Huang (viola), and Peter Lloyd (double bass) who teaches at Los Angeles’s Colburn School.
Lin shares: “We are extremely grateful that we weren’t forced to cancel the program this summer. A year is a long time in a young musician’s life, and it’s very sad that so many of them are missing out because of the pandemic. Thanks to Taiwan’s nimble response, the amenability of our faculty and the unwavering generosity of our sponsors, we are thrilled to be able to offer our attendees the mentorship, training and performance opportunities they need if they are to develop as artists.”
The Festival’s final concert will be broadcast worldwide on The Violin Channel on August 9.
