Founded as the first professional Chinese orchestra in Taiwan in 1979, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO) has established a reputation for great versatility and artistic excellence. The orchestra annually touches the lives of close to 100,000 music lovers. Besides giving over 50 regular concerts every year, the TCO also shoulders the responsibility of art education, presenting numerous school concerts as well as an extensive series of community concerts entitled Bringing Arts to the Alleys. The TCO also plays the role of cultural ambassador for Taipei City and has per formed in more than twenty countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas. In 2011 the TCO made a US tour, as the first non-Western orchestra to be represented by the renowned management company Opus3 Artists.
Since the eminent composer Chung Yiu-Kwong’s appointment as general director in 2007, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra has experienced an era of unprecedented artistic growth. Its innovative programming has served to broaden the definition of traditional Chinese music, with a roster of international guest artists that includes traditional Chinese music masters such as Huifen Min, Pak-yung Siu and Guotong Wang, in addition to world-renowned artists including Mischa Maisky, Julian Lloyd Webber, Anssi Karttunen and the Kronos Quartet. The TCO has attracted international recognition for its live performances on tours as well as for its recordings. Capable of ‘producing a rich multihued soundscape, a vibrant rhythmic drive, and spectacular ensemble virtuosity’ is how the orchestra was described in an American Record Guide review of the disc Harmonious Breath [BIS-1790] with Claude Delangle as saxophone soloist.
