I live in Hsinchu, but go up to Taipei on the weekends. Thanks!
I don’t know about community groups, but as a foreigner, I was always welcomed in any university orchestra I cared to approach. I used to play double reeds at NTNU and Taipei Medical College (although to be fair, the motto for the latter should have been “The TMC Orchestra: It only Sounds Like We’re Not Using Anesthetic.”)
I was also in the er-hu section in the Chinese orchestra when I was at Fujen.
I have a close European friend who met her Taiwanese husband in the string sections of the NTU orchestra, but she may have been a student there at the time.
Anyway, the key element seems to be: if you are a foreigner and can be reasonably charming, you can play with a school group.
Another point – in my experience in Taiwan (and this may be changing, I’m not sure), if you want to participate in some activity that is normally done by professionals or people with specialized training, like music or art, you will likely have to do it with a group of students who are preparing to take the test for whatever it is, or in the course of training to become musicians or artists.
I never managed to encounter a group of adults who did music or art as an enjoyable pastime, although now that I think about it, I know there is a serious amateur orchestra somewhere in northern Taiwan since the abovementioned couple plays with it (I’ll ask when I get a chance). It seems that Taiwanese people generally think that either you have talent for these things – in which case you become a professional – or you don’t, in which case it is best left to the pros.
The other limitation in art was that when I took art classes, there was one correct way to paint [insert name of fruit here]. I did not finish the class because the instructor was so embarrassed about critiquing my still-lifes in class, becuase I hadn’t come up through the Taiwanese ranks and hadn’t learned the right way to paint fruit.
Not sure that school groups even exist at NTCU and NTHU, since both are so tech-centric universities. But I’ll ask around. See if you can find out the group you friends are a part of. I feel like this group should exist somewhere in northern taiwan…and if not, I guess I can try putting together a brass quintet or something else small.
Thanks for your help!
Hi,
I ran across an old e-mail from her last night, and the group they were working with was called the “Taipei Civic Orchestra”, I believe. It was fairly serious, and they don’t brook bad musicians, so if you can find it, it would probably be worthwhile. I suppose it met in Taipei, though, given the name.
The Táiběi Shìmín Jiāoxiǎngyuètuán (Taipei Civic Symphony Orchestra (TCSO) / 台北市民交響樂團) is scheduled to give a concert next Saturday at the National Concert Hall.
There are some details about the orchestra – including an e-mail contact address – on its website.