The Beigang International Music Festival () is a project of the Beigang Philharmonic Association (Chinese: 雲林縣北港愛樂協會) and takes place in

Beigang Beigang, Hokkō or Peikang is an urban township in Yunlin County, Taiwan. It is primarily known for its Chaotian Temple, one of the most prominent Temples of Mazu on Taiwan. It has a population of 37,899 as of September 2022. Geography The Be ...

Yunlin County Yunlin County (Mandarin pinyin: ''Yúnlín Xiàn''; Taigi POJ: ''Hûn-lîm-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Yùn-lìm-yen'') is a county in western Taiwan. Yunlin County borders the Taiwan Strait to the west, Nantou County to the east, Changhua County t ...

, Taiwan. Since its inception in 2006, the festival has grown and developed to become the biggest international music festival in Yunlin County. The festival has a series of concerts, mostly wind music (for

solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Comics * ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series * Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

and

wind band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...

), and an educational program within the Chia-Hu Conservatory (Chinese: 陳家湖音樂學院). The festival also organizes an intercultural program for musicians from different countries. The

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

of the Beigang International Music Festival is the

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Heinz Chen.

Beigang

(北港鎮) is known for the

Chaotian Temple The Chaotian or Chaotien Temple, officially the Chao-Tian Temple,. & is a temple to the Chinese Goddess Mazu in Beigang Township, Yunlin County, Taiwan. Constructed in 1700, it became one of the most important Mazu temples in Taiwan and is ...

, which is one of the most important temples for

Mazu Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Re ...

, the goddess. Because the cultural scene in Beigang is generally active only on holy days, the Beigang Philharmonic Association has dedicated itself to improving Beigang's music education and performance sector. Most of the festival activities take place in the centre of Beigang.

History

In 2005 the Beigang Philharmonic Association organized the first Beigang Music Festival. Performances were held by the Beigang Wind Orchestra and pupils of the Chia-Hu Conservatory in Beigang. In 2006 Heinz Chen was appointed the artistic director of the festival and assigned to raise the festival to an international level. Thus, the Beigang International Music Festival was created. The festival has since become very popular amongst local audiences, media and politicians. Every year, since 2005, County Governor Su Ji-Feng has visited the festival, among other politicians. In 2007, the festival welcomed the rector of

Hochschule für Musik Detmold The Hochschule für Musik Detmold is a university-level music school situated in Detmold, Germany. Academics The Hochschule offers performance degrees in composition, all orchestral instruments, piano, voice, opera, art-song, conducting, as we ...

, Prof. Martin Christian Vogel. BIMF2007 LionDance

Concept

Most of the concerts take place in Beigang. In addition, there are performances in

Douliu City Douliu (Hokkien POJ: ''Táu-la̍k'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Yunlin County, Taiwan. It is also the political and economic center of the county. Douliu City is served by National Highway No. 3. Name Its former name ...

and Sinying City. These events are held with art music (the so-called classical music) but there are several performances with light music, for example the open-air concert Cultural Interaction Night. The performance in a local restaurant, Club Concert, have also been very popular. The festival aims to develop strong intercultural exchanges between musicians from different countries. It also promotes music for children and audiences who are dedicated to experiencing a wealth of classical and related music types. For this reason, a tutorial project takes place, in which the international performers share their knowledge with pupils from Beigang. The concerts and the educational program are free of charge to visitors. The festival's organisers want to share music with all who are interested, as it is an outreach organisation and wishes to reach all sectors of the population.

Musicians

The following musicians have been invited since 2006: * Lauri Bruins, Netherlands,

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

* Anita Farkas, Hungary,

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

* Paz Aparicio García, Spain,

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

Noémi Győri Noémi Győri (born 1983) is a Hungarian classical flautist. Education Győri graduated with honours from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest (Prof. Henrik Prőhle) in 2007 and completed post-graduate studies at the University of Music and ...

, Hungary, flute * Wilfried Stefan Hanslmeier, Germany,

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

* Philipp Hutter, Switzerland,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Christina Jacobs, Germany, saxophone * Anniina Karjalainen, Finland, trumpet * Sofia Kayaya, Denmark, flute * Mizuho Kojima, Japan, trombone and

euphonium The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word ''euphōnos'', meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ( ''eu'' means "well" ...

* Zoltán Kövér, Hungary, trumpet *

Anna Krauja Anna Krauja Čena (born 1981) is a lyric soprano from Latvia. Born in Riga, Anna Krauja was elected ''International Mini Miss'' in a competition at the Latvian National Theatre in 1993 and was the first Latvian child to win this award. At her ap ...

, Latvia,

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

* Paavo Maijala, Finland,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Lauri Sallinen, Finland, clarinet * Juuso Wallin, Finland,

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

, festival orchestra conductor

Beigang Philharmonic Association

The main organizer of the festival is the Beigang Philharmonic Association. Its members work free of charge and on a volunteer basis.

External links