Macau Orchestra debuts in Taiwan

Lu Jia

The Macau Orchestra is currently performing in Taiwan for the first time. The orchestra’s concert tour opened last week, bringing with it works by Rachmaninoff and other masters.
Led by artistic director and principal conductor Lu Jia, the orchestra played in Taipei and in Hsinchu. They will also play in Kaohsiung today and in Taichung tomorrow, according to the tour’s Taiwan promoter, New Aspect, Environment, Culture & Creation.
The orchestra will perform Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 6 in A major,” Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18,” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade, Op. 35.” It will also play “Little Sisters of the Grassland,” a Chinese pipa concerto composed by Liu Dehai, Wu Zuqiang and Wang Yanqiao, according to the promoter.
Taiwanese pianist Rueibin Chen will join the orchestra in performing the Rachmaninoff piece, while Chinese pipa player Zhang Hongyan will perform in the pipa concerto. The pipa is a four-stringed lute.
The orchestra, formerly known as the Macau Chamber Orchestra, was established in 1983 and became a professional orchestra in 1995.