Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra

Wherever there is music, there is you.A young orchestra which marches on steadily

It is an asset for a city to have an orchestra of its own. Young and energetic, the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra (KSO) regularly invites world-class conductors and masters for collaboration. It also challenges itself by staging performances of diversified styles. The development of the orchestra focuses on both classical and crossover genres. The KSO has not only created increasingly more high-quality musical miscellanies for citizens and music enthusiasts; it has also planted numerous seeds for music appreciation and performance, contributing to the innovation of classical music.

The Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1981. It was merged with the Kaohsiung Chinese Orchestra in 2009 as “Kaohsiung Philharmonic Culture and Arts Foundation”. Its current chairperson is acting director-general of Koahsiung City’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs Wang Wen-Tsui. In 2012, the orchestra officially moved into Dadong Arts Center, where it has a more exclusive and stable rehearsal space. The end of 2018 marked the grand opening of the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (WeiWuYing), where the KSO participated in the center’s inauguration. It is our hope that he orchestra will play a more important role in the center’s vineyard style concert hall, which is the only one of its kind in Taiwan.

In the past ten years, the KSO has collaborated with renowned local and international artists and music groups, including：Conductor Zdenek Macal, Erich Kunzel, George Fenton, Christoph Poppen, Tomomi Nishimoto, Tan Dun, Wen-Pin Chien, Mei-Ann Chen, Tung-Chieh Chuang and Chin-Chao Lin; Vocalists Jose Carreras, Hayley Westenra, Russell Watson, Erika Miklósa; Violinist Vadim Repin, Shlomo Mintz, Akiko Suwanai, Cho-Liang Lin, Nai-Yuan Hu, Salvatore Accardo, Ann Akiko Meye, Feng Ning, Sayaka Shoji, Mayuko Kamio, Yu-Chien Tseng; Cellists Mischa Maisky, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Wen-Sinn Yang, Alban Gerhardt, Gavriel Lipkind; Pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, Ivo Pogorelich, Andrei Gavrilov, Yun-di Li, Alexi Volodin, Valentina Lisitsa and Makoto Ozone. Apart from the above, KSO has also collaborated with the following instrumentalist, including Swedish Guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, Tumpeters Sergie Nakariakov, Lucienne Renaudin Vary as well as Clarinetist Paul Meyer and Andreas Ottensamer.

Since 2009, the KSO has made considerable contribution in the Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival, successfully promoting its grassland concerts，including Tan Dun’s “Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon”, the joint production of BBC and Discovery’s “Blue Planet”, “Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny at the Symphony”, “The Lord of the Rings” and “Seediq Bale”, a Taiwanese epic historical film, “NASA – The Planet and the Orbit”, “Music form the films of Tim Burton”, “Amadeus LIVE” ; Hollywood in Kaohsiung Series – “Magic moment”, “Comedy Tonight”, “World of The Adventure”; Taiwanese Movie Series “IMpact Taiwan”, “Our Movies Our Songs”, “Jurassic Park”, “Love Actually”. KSO also took part in full opera production in Kaohsiung Spring Art Festival-“Magic Flute”, “La Traviata”, “Carmen” and “La Boheme”.which has gained significant resonance and praise from the audience.

In addition to its concert hall performances, the KSO has also brought classical music to diverse fields, promoting music on school campuses and in communities. Some of the most well-received programs include a number of concerts designed to educate young students of classical music and concert halls, as well as a series of music performances staged in local communities or performance venues.

The KSO has been invited to perform on international stages in the USA, Macao, Nanking, Shanghai, Qingdao, Suzhou, Singapore and Beijing. In 2017, the KSO was invited to the Beethoven-themed Spring Green Music Festival in Kanazawa, Japan, as well as Hong Kong’s 2017 Taiwan Culture Festival. With the self-development goal of becoming an internationally acclaimed orchestra, the KSO has gradually reached beyond city and country borders.