【Thursday Art & Culture】Melodic Delights！2014 Taroko Gorge Music Festival

Text / Compiled and reported by the MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Lifestyle Network Editorial Team

 

The majestic beauty of Taroko National Park is a treasured asset of Taiwan, attracting domestic and international visitors to witness the wonders of nature. In addition to exploring the park’s animals, plants, mountains, streams, and rocks, one can also appreciate it through humanity’s most primal senses—sight, hearing, smell, and touch. The 2014 Taroko Gorge Music Festival will take place on September 20 and September 27, inviting travelers to engage in an intellectual and emotional dialogue through music and art, experiencing the beauty of the national park’s natural and cultural ecology, and listening to the symphony of life between nature and humans amid the mountains and sea.

Over the years, the Gorge Music Festival has presented a new look each year with different themes, using the Taroko Plateau, Changchun Shrine, Buluowan, and Qingshui Cliff as event venues, leaving both local and international participants in awe. It’s a rare, immersive experience to listen to wonderful music while wandering amidst Taroko’s grand mountains and seas.We hope the Gorge Music Festival will inspire people to step outdoors and enter the spiritual homeland of humanity—national parks. With the natural rhythms of the mountains and sea, one can relax body and mind, perceive with all senses, reflect in the mirror of the landscape, and compose a moving journey of life together with Taroko.

【Info】

2014 Taroko Gorge Music Festival

 

● First Session: Qingshui Cliff

In the 16th century, Portuguese explorers sailing through the Pacific were struck by the dramatic and rugged coastal scenery and exclaimed “Formosa,” meaning “beautiful island.” This stunning coastline is Qingshui Cliff. Located on the eastern side of Qingshui Mountain, it stretches 21 kilometers along the Suhua Highway between Heping and Chongde. The southeastern major cliff of Qingshui Mountain is particularly steep and spectacular. As visitors move between the mountain cliffs and the endless sea, they may feel as if they are soaring above the clouds between mountain and ocean, as well as sense the blood, sweat, and tears of the pioneers who settled here.

This year’s Qingshui Cliff concert will be themed “Drums & Strings Song.” Amid the powerful beats of drums, paired with the clear tones of xylophone, the ethereal voices of indigenous female sopranos, and the sounds of strings and piano, audiences can introspect and empower themselves through the deeply meditative drumbeats and physical performances.

 

“Drums & Strings Song”

Performance Date: September 20

Performance Time: 15:00–17:00

Performance Venue: Qingshui Cliff Banxia Fishing Ground

Performing Musicians: Drums / Luo Sangxirang, Lai Kaiwei; Xylophone / Lu Qianqian; Cello / Zhang Zhengjie; Soprano / Lin Huizhen; Piano / Shen Meiling.

A strong contrast is created using various Eastern and Western percussion instruments, with special guest participation from Atayal professor Lin Huizhen.

 

 

● Second & Third Sessions: Changchun Shrine