In the News

Taiwan celebrates contributions of conductor Henry Mazer

• Publication Date：06/13/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  June Tsai

The work of American conductor Henry Mazer, music director of the Taipei Sinfonietta and Philharmonic Orchestra for 18 years, will be celebrated with an exhibition and memorial concert June 24.

Mazer was an associate conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra before moving to Taiwan in 1985. The Pittsburg-born musician promoted Western music education in the country until his death in August 2002 at the age of 84.

“The Taiwanese music world benefited greatly from Mazer’s presence,” Conrad Hsing, senior producer and anchorman for Philharmonic Radio Taipei, said June 13. “He brought his experience and interpretative style to Taiwan and opened the eyes of local audiences of the 1980s and 1990s, who had very few opportunities to hear the sounds of Western classic music in live performance.”

Mazer led the ensemble on tours to Canada, Europe and the U.S., to great critical acclaim.

“He is widely remembered here for his pioneering role in using music as a bridge between Taiwan and the world,” Hsing said, adding that Mazer was often the first to embrace works by local composers such as Huang Fu-tang and Lee Che-yi.

In the memorial concert at the National Concert Hall in Taipei City, the orchestra will present milestone pieces it performed with the maestro, including Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which it delivered in Austria in 1993, and Lee’s “Formosa Caprice,” which it last played under Mazer in 1999.

Photos, video recordings and manuscripts related to Mazer’s life and work are currently on display at the concert hall’s gallery until June 27. (THN)