New York Classical Review: Taiwan Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble
New York Classical Review covers the ensemble's “From Formosa” program at Merkin Hall, part of its 2026 U.S. tour.
The Taiwan Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble recently embarked on a 2026 U.S. tour, “From Formosa,” celebrating Taiwanese American Heritage Month with premieres, Taiwanese masterworks, and cross-cultural collaborations.
On May 19, the ensemble performed at Merkin Hall, in New York City. It was “a lively and engaging encounter among Western instruments, indigenous voices, and composers of a new kind of 'fusion' musical cuisine,” reports New York Classical Review.
Read the full piece here.
Taiwan Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble Announces “From Formosa” U.S. Tour
The chamber ensemble from Taiwan Philharmonic embarks on its 2026 U.S. tour, “From Formosa,” with performances in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and New York, May 15–19.
©Luo Wun Jie
Celebrating Taiwanese American Heritage Month with World Premieres and Cross-Cultural Collaborations
NEW YORK, NY — April 14, 2026 — The chamber ensemble from Taiwan Philharmonic embarks on its 2026 U.S. tour, “From Formosa,” with performances in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and New York, May 15–19. “From Formosa” celebrates Taiwanese American Heritage Month through a richly curated program of world premieres, Taiwanese masterworks, and cross-cultural collaborations.
An elite group of musicians led by Taiwan Philharmonic Concertmaster Hao-Tun Teng, the chamber ensemble will present performances that feature acclaimed pianist Chun-Chieh Yen and the soulful voices of Taiwan’s Taiwu Ballads Troupe. The tour highlights a distinctive artistic vision that bridges Western chamber music traditions with the cultural heritage of Taiwan and its Indigenous communities. The performances take place at Thayer Hall, at Colburn School in Los Angeles; Camelback Bible Church in Phoenix; and Merkin Hall, at Kaufman Music Center in New York City.
A defining feature of “From Formosa” is the collaboration with Taiwu Ballads Troupe — one of Taiwan’s leading indigenous vocal ensembles, dedicated to preserving and performing music from the Paiwan, an indigenous people of Taiwan. In addition, the Phoenix concert features Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai, creating a powerful artistic dialogue between Taiwanese and Native American traditions.
“The Taiwan Philharmonic has long been committed to building meaningful cultural bridges through music,” said Dr. Lydia Wen-Chen Kuo, Executive Director of the Taiwan Philharmonic. “Following our previous international tours, ‘From Formosa’ gives us the timely opportunity to share Taiwan’s artistic voice in the United States during Taiwanese American Heritage Month. These collaborations with indigenous artists from both countries reflect shared histories, traditions, and a deeply personal connection that transcends borders.”
Program Highlights
“From Formosa” weaves together traditional and contemporary voices in a program that reflects Taiwan’s cultural diversity and artistic innovation. Highlights include:
Taiwanese indigenous polyphonic songs
Taiwanese Indigenous Music for String Quartet & Chorus (arr. by Ting-Chuan Chen)
Ke-Chia Chen: Silver Fields for Piano Quintet (world premiere, commissioned by Muzik 3 Foundation)
Tyzen Hsiao: The Highlander’s Suite for Piano Quintet
Yun-Jou Chen: Terra/ Liturgy for String Quartet (world premiere, commissioned by Hakka Affairs Council)
Aaron Copland: Two Pieces for String Quartet
James DeMars: Lake That Speaks for Native American Flute and Cello
Amazing Grace for Native American and Chamber Ensemble (arr. by Billy Williams)
Together, these works explore themes of identity, heritage, and cultural continuity, placing Taiwanese and indigenous traditions in dialogue with the Western classical canon.
Artists
The Taiwan Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble:
Hao-Tun Teng, violin
Yi-Ju Chen, violin
Jubel Chen, viola
Yi-Shien Lien, cello
Chun-Chieh Yen, piano
With special guest artists:
Taiwu Ballads Troupe
R. Carlos Nakai, Native American flute (Phoenix performance, May 17)
Los Angeles, CA
May 15, 2026 at 7 PM
Colburn School, Thayer Hall
Presented by Colburn School
Tickets: https://colburnschool.edu/calendar/events/from-formosa-taiwan-philharmonic-chamber-ensemble-2026-us-tour/
Phoenix, AZ
May 17, 2026 at 3 PM
Doors Open at 2 PM (Taiwanese Pop-up Fair starts in the church lobby)
Camelback Bible Church
Tickets*: http://taiwanphoenix.org
*Each ticket can be redeemed for $10 worth of souvenirs at the Taiwanese Pop-up Fair.
New York, NY
May 19, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
Tickets: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/from-formosa-taiwan-philharmonic-chamber-ensemble-2026-us-tour/
©Luo Wun Jie
About the Taiwan Philharmonic
Founded in 1986, the Taiwan Philharmonic, also known as the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at home, has been hailed as one of the best orchestras in Asia. With some of the finest musical talent from at home and abroad, trained at top schools and international orchestras, the NSO enjoys a unique voice rich in diversity and tradition. The NSO's artistic development has been carefully nurtured over the years by music directors Tsang-Houei Hsu, Tah-Sheng Chang, Jahja Ling, Wen-Pin Chien, and Shao-Chia Lü — as well as principal conductors Gerard Akoka and Urs Schneider, and conductor laureate Günther Herbig. Under the leadership of Jun Märkl as the music director since January 2022, the NSO aspires to resonate throughout the world as the cultural ambassador of Taiwan. Music by Taiwanese composers is extensively commissioned, performed, and recorded by the NSO.
As the orchestra affiliated with the National Performing Arts Center, the NSO presents a 40-week season of approximately 80 events — concerts, chamber recitals, operas, and crossover productions. Performing not only for audiences throughout Taiwan, the NSO also tours regularly overseas, having performed in such musical centers as Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Milan, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City and many other cities.
About Taiwu Ballads Troupe
Taiwu Ballads Troupe (TBT) was founded by Camake Valaule at Taiwu Elementary School in Pingtung, Taiwan. Beginning in 2004, Camake worked closely with tribal elders to document traditional Paiwan melodies and vocal polyphony. These songs were then carefully taught to TBT’s members. The original members then continued the cycle of transmission by teaching the songs to a new generation. Today, TBT has become one of the most representative groups dedicated to preserving and performing Paiwan music.
Since its founding, TBT has appeared at major international festivals and venues across Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. In 2019, they were invited to perform on the main stage at WOMADelaide (Australia) and WOMAD New Zealand, becoming the first Taiwanese group invited to perform on the festival’s main stage.
Acknowledgements
LA Performance
Supervised by: Council of Indigenous Peoples, Taiwan; Hakka Affairs Council, Taiwan; Ministry of Culture, Taiwan; Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles
Appointed Airline: STARLUX Airlines
Event sponsored by: I-MEI Culture and Education Foundation
Event Partner: National Cultural Association of Taiwan
Special Thanks: UUIN; JIU ZHEN NAN
Phoenix Performance
Supervised by: Council of Indigenous Peoples, Taiwan; Hakka Affairs Council, Taiwan Sponsored by: TSMC Education & Culture Foundation
Appointed Airline: STARLUX Airlines
Event sponsored by: I-MEI Culture and Education Foundation
Event Partner: National Cultural Association of Taiwan
Special thanks: UUIN; JIU ZHEN NAN
New York Performance
Supervised by: Council of Indigenous Peoples, Taiwan; Hakka Affairs Council, Taiwan; Ministry of Culture, Taiwan; Taipei Cultural Center in New York
Sponsored by: CTBC Bank
Appointed Airline: STARLUX Airlines
Event sponsored by: I-MEI Culture and Education Foundation
Event Partner: National Cultural Association of Taiwan
Special Thanks: UUIN; JIU ZHEN NAN
Designated Hotel: Friendwell Group
Media Contact
Matt Herman
8VA Music Consultancy
matt@8vamusicconsultancy.com
###
Blogcritics: Concert Review (NYC): Taiwan Philharmonic, Paul Huang – Music of Bruch, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Ke-Chia Chen
The Taiwan Philharmonic’s concert at Lincoln Center on Friday night was a festive affair. Conductor Jun Märkl brought sweeping majesty to Debussy’s La Mer and Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. Violinist Paul Huang dazzled with Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra. And the concert opened with a spectacular new piece by Taiwanese composer Ke-Chia Chen titled Ebb and Flow, written for the orchestra’s current tour.
Sometimes you can tell when musicians are really delighted to be where they are. There was that sense of excitement on the stage at David Geffen Hall, matching the enthusiasm bubbling in the audience. Musicians crowded the stage wall-to-wall, and you could feel positive energy emanating from them as individuals as well as collectively. The program’s theme was islands and oceans, but the feeling was homey, like a huge family reunion.
Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel
The Taiwan Philharmonic’s concert at Lincoln Center on Friday night was a festive affair. Conductor Jun Märkl brought sweeping majesty to Debussy’s La Mer and Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. Violinist Paul Huang dazzled with Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra. And the concert opened with a spectacular new piece by Taiwanese composer Ke-Chia Chen titled Ebb and Flow, written for the orchestra’s current tour.
Sometimes you can tell when musicians are really delighted to be where they are. There was that sense of excitement on the stage at David Geffen Hall, matching the enthusiasm bubbling in the audience. Musicians crowded the stage wall-to-wall, and you could feel positive energy emanating from them as individuals as well as collectively. The program’s theme was islands and oceans, but the feeling was homey, like a huge family reunion.
Read more here.
Violin Channel: VC Artist Paul Huang to Join Taiwan Philharmonic on American Tour
Known in Taiwan as the National Symphony Orchestra, the Taiwan Philharmonic (NSO) is one of the first international orchestras to be presented by the New York Philharmonic in David Geffen Hall in its return to the U.S. this spring.
The NSO’s 2023 tour follows previous successful tours of the U.S. with violinist Cho-Liang Lin in 2016, and with pianist Stephen Hough and violinist Yu-Chien Tseng in 2018.
This year VC Artist violinist Paul Huang will join the NSO, and its music director Jun Märkl, for its David Geffen Hall debut on the tour’s last three days with Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy Op. 46.
Violin Channel
The Taiwan Philharmonic and conductor Jun Märkl will perform across New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. from April 14–23, 2023
Known in Taiwan as the National Symphony Orchestra, the Taiwan Philharmonic (NSO) is one of the first international orchestras to be presented by the New York Philharmonic in David Geffen Hall in its return to the U.S. this spring.
The NSO’s 2023 tour follows previous successful tours of the U.S. with violinist Cho-Liang Lin in 2016, and with pianist Stephen Hough and violinist Yu-Chien Tseng in 2018.
This year VC Artist violinist Paul Huang will join the NSO, and its music director Jun Märkl, for its David Geffen Hall debut on the tour’s last three days with Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy Op. 46.
The tour starts on April 14, 2023, in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, with a chamber music concert featuring members of the Taiwan Philharmonic & Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Read more here.
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Violin Channel: VC Artist Paul Huang Opens 2022/23 Season at the Taiwan Philharmonic
Huang will perform Bruch's Scottish Fantasy as part of a program of Scottish-themed music
As the featured soloist for the Taiwan Philharmonic, also known as National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Taiwan, VC Artist Paul Huang will perform alongside Music Director Jun Märkl. The season-opening programs will be presented in three venues: the National Concert Hall, the Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Concert Hall, and the Taitung Art and Culture Center.
Huang will perform Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, as part of a Scottish-themed program that also includes Debussy's Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 "Scottish."
Violin Channel
Huang will perform Bruch's Scottish Fantasy as part of a program of Scottish-themed music
As the featured soloist for the Taiwan Philharmonic, also known as National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Taiwan, VC Artist Paul Huang will perform alongside Music Director Jun Märkl. The season-opening programs will be presented in three venues: the National Concert Hall, the Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Concert Hall, and the Taitung Art and Culture Center.
Huang will perform Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, as part of a Scottish-themed program that also includes Debussy's Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 "Scottish."
"I'm particularly excited about returning to my homeland, Taiwan, to share the stage with the Taiwan Philharmonic and Maestro Jun Markl again, because this will be the opening night of its first post-pandemic season," Paul told The Violin Channel.
Read more here.
Van Magazine: An Orchestra Plays By COVID Rules
Van Magazine’s Jefrey Arlo Brown spoke with Shao-Chia Lü, Taiwan Philharmonic’s music director since 2010, and executive director Wen-Chen Kuo about the pragmatic art of the post-pandemic concert.
Van Magazine
Jefrey Arlo Brown
Asia is the future of classical music, goes the tired cliché repeated by such luminaries as Simon Rattle. As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes in places like Taiwan and the Republic of Korea, however, that banality becomes quite literally true. East Asian orchestras, supported by competent governments and resilient public healthy systems, are beginning to play for live audiences again—a state of affairs many European and, especially, American musicians can only dream of.
What will that future look like? A series of concerts, both live and livestreamed, on May 24 (the Serenades by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky, and a work by Tyzen Hsiao), on May 30 (Mozart’s “Gran Partita” and Dvořák’s Serenade Op. 22), and June 12 (Beethoven Five and Seven), has allowed the National Symphony Orchestra of Taipei, Taiwan, to feel for a new role in a changed world.
Last week, I spoke with Shao-Chia Lü, the orchestra’s music director since 2010, and executive director Wen-Chen Kuo about the pragmatic art of the post-pandemic concert.
Read the interview here.
Financial Times: When Will the Music Start Again?
When the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan came out on stage to play on Sunday night, it fired the starting gun for concert life to resume. After months of the coronavirus lockdown, here at last was an orchestra playing in front of a live audience in a concert hall.
Financial Times
Richard Fairman
When the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan came out on stage to play on Sunday night, it fired the starting gun for concert life to resume. After months of the coronavirus lockdown, here at last was an orchestra playing in front of a live audience in a concert hall.
Read more here.
The Strad: National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan, Resumes Concerts
The National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan [also known as the Taiwan Philharmonic] is to begin performing again in a series of 3 concerts on 24 May, 30 May and 12 June at Taiwan’s National Theatre and Concert Hall. All three ‘sofa concerts’ will be live-streamed on YouTube and other platforms and will be available to view afterwards too.
The Strad
The National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan [also known as the Taiwan Philharmonic] is to begin performing again in a series of 3 concerts on 24 May, 30 May and 12 June at Taiwan’s National Theatre and Concert Hall. All three ‘sofa concerts’ will be live-streamed on YouTube and other platforms and will be available to view afterwards too.
The first live concert, beginning at 19:30 Taiwan time (12:30 CET/7:30 EDT), includes Dvořák’s Serenade in D minor; Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major; and Tyzen Hsiao’s Bang Chhun Hong (‘Longing for the Spring Breeze’), composed in the 1930s.
Read more here.
San Francisco Classical Voice: Taiwan Philharmonic Offers A Fresh Perspective on Orchestral Music
How different the same hall feels with another orchestra onstage. For starters, at Monday’s Taiwan Philharmonic concert, women not only outnumbered men — they were extraordinarily well-represented even in the sections (double bass, brass, and especially, leadership positions) that remain male-dominated in this country’s orchestras. There was no concertmaster entrance; in fact, the orchestra entered the Davies stage en masse. And the applause, after every movement, didn’t feel wrong.
San Francisco Classical Voice
Rebecca Wishnia
How different the same hall feels with another orchestra onstage. For starters, at Monday’s Taiwan Philharmonic concert, women not only outnumbered men — they were extraordinarily well-represented even in the sections (double bass, brass, and especially, leadership positions) that remain male-dominated in this country’s orchestras. There was no concertmaster entrance; in fact, the orchestra entered the Davies stage en masse. And the applause, after every movement, didn’t feel wrong.
To read more, click here.
Seattle Times: Best bets for classical music in Seattle this fall
Taiwan Philharmonic and Marc-André Hamelin’s Meany Hall performances make Seattle Times’s “Best Bets for Classical Music in Seattle This Fall” list.
Seattle Times
Melinda Bargreen
President’s Piano Series presents Marc-André Hamelin: The multitalented virtuoso pianist was not only a juror at last year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, he also composed a challenging toccata played by all 30 of the competitors.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, Meany Theater at the University of Washington, Seattle
Taiwan Philharmonic with pianist Stephen Hough: This touring orchestra makes its Seattle debut in the acoustically warm Meany Theater with Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and the “Dancing Song” (from “Three Aboriginal Songs for Orchestra”) of Taiwanese composer Gordon Chin.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, Meany Theater at the University of Washington, Seattle
Read more here.