Department of Cultural Affairs

I. Activities
Approximately 100 scheduled performances and festival appearances (including, community, school and public park concerts) per year
II. Telephone (8862) 2578-6731 | FAX: (8862) 2577-8244
III. Web site www.tso.gov.tw
IV. Address 7F, No. 25, BaDe Road, Sec. 3, Taipei, Taiwan
V. Transportation:
(1) TRTS Blue Line, ZhongXiao-DunHua Station, Exit No. 8. Transfer to public bus 605 or 378. Disembark at the TTV bus stop.
(2) Public buses: 357, 202, 605, 203, 205, 0 East, 276, 278. Disembark at the TTV bus stop.
VI. Introduction:
For more than 30 years, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra has earned a reputation as Taiwan's finest musical ensemble. With the largest number of concerts and the largest number of overseas invitations of any major music company in Taiwan, the TSO has given countless debut performances, and plays in a wide variety of forms, including opera, ballet, theater and symphonies.
In the spring of 1979, Taipei City Mayor (and later ROC President) Lee Teng-hui directed the Taipei Symphony Orchestra to organize the Taipei Music Festival, as an infusion of new vitality into the city's cultural life. Since then, the TSO has held the Taipei Music Festival 24 times. The first large-scale music festival in Taiwan, it is regularly honored with the participation of many international artists, and has become a well-known international arts event. Over the years, it has featured ballets, symphonies and such famed operas “La Traviata," “Faustus," “Carmen," “Turandot," “La Boheme," “Aida," “Madame Butterfly," “Cavalleria Rusticana," “Pagliacci," “Othello," “The Flying Dutchman" and “Salome." The Taipei Music Festival also spotlights a number of contemporary compositions, such as the 2000 debut performance of Tan Dun's multimedia opera “The Gate."
Over the years, many of the world's top ensembles have joined in the Taipei Music Festival, including Britain's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The festival has enjoyed remarkable achievements in raising the standard of Taiwan's cultural events and enriching the musical lives of Taipei's people.
In addition to maintaining a busy practice schedule, honing its technique and expanding its repertoire, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra gives a variety of performances every year, including regularly scheduled concerts, open-air concerts, tours, school performances, and musical events for parents and children. To celebrate the millennium, the TSO introduced a Starlight Concert Series for the first time in Taipei's Da-an Forest Park, performing the Verdi opera “Rigoletto" and selected Russian Ballet Masterpieces, a milestone in Taiwan's quality arts and culture.