Taiwan Today

Conductor David Liao loves to cultivate talent and confront new challenges.

When the music stops, conductor David Liao gently reminds some orchestra members of the mistakes they have just made rehearsing a rondo—an instrumental form based on the repetition of a particular melody—for violin and orchestra by Ma Shui-long, a venerated Taiwanese composer. Over the course of more than 40 years, Liao, 78, has conducted more than 300 orchestra performances and instructed numerous music students, always with an even temper. This time, as he conducts the orchestra of National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA), where he has been teaching since 1977, is no exception. “I don’t scold students in public and I don’t mention specific names when correcting them,” Liao says. “I mention the instruments only and the ones who’ve made the mistakes will know who they are. If you reprimand a violinist harshly he or she will answer back, not by speaking, but by playing the instrument in a way that makes you feel their anger.”

In October 2009, Liao received the National Award for Arts for his lifetime work in the field of music, which made him one of just two conductors to have won the honor—the other is Du Hei, who received it in 1997 for conducting choruses. The underlying reasons for Liao’s selection for the award had much less to do with his patience and pleasant demeanor, however, than with his passion for cultivating talented young musicians and boosting the development of classical music in Taiwan.

Born in Tucheng, Taipei County in 1932 during the Japanese colonial era in Taiwan (1895−1945), Liao’s love for music began in his early childhood through contact with it in his daily life. Oftentimes he found himself drawn to the live music at outdoor performances of Taiwanese opera near his home, which were common in Taiwan when he was growing up in the 1930s and 1940s. The Japanese-language patriotic songs broadcast on the radio at the time were another source of inspiration for the child. “I sang fairly well then,” he says. “I was often singled out by my teachers to do solo performances of mostly patriotic songs when I was a grade school pupil.” Soon the child who loved to sing was given the nickname Mr. Solo by his elementary school classmates.

When Liao was a junior high school student, a teacher noticed his musical talent and began teaching him how to play the organ. But Liao did not receive formal, systematic music instruction until he enrolled in the music department of Taiwan Provincial Normal School in 1949, the forerunner of today’s National Taipei University of Education. Exempting its students from tuition while requiring them to take a teaching post after graduation, the school was the best choice for the young Liao, who came from a poor family and had 11 siblings.

Influential Figure

Liao took up the violin in his first year as a university student. Later in his studies, he asked David C.L. Tai—a master violinist from mainland China and former head of the Provincial Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, which later became the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra (TNSO)—to become his tutor. Liao now refers to Tai as the most influential figure in his career as a violinist.

After finishing his university studies, Liao took up his compulsory teaching duties at a public school for five years. He also found time to do other things, among them finding romance and seeking out Taipei’s entertainment options, but both were, inevitably, related to music. “At a time when concerts were quite rare, the greatest enjoyment for us was to go to the United States Information Service on Nanhai Road or the Taiwan Provincial Museum [which was renamed National Taiwan Museum in 1999],” says Liao’s wife Chen Lu-ning, a former professor and pianist at NTUA, of the life the couple led in Taipei in the mid-1950s before their marriage. The American organization and the museum were their favorite destinations since they played records of Western classical music for music lovers on a weekly basis. Movie houses playing films featuring classical music were another choice, Liao adds, as they showed movies such as The Great Waltz, a biographical film based on the life of Austrian composer Johann Strauss II.

Unlike most graduates of his university who continued to teach after their compulsory five-year obligation ended, however, Liao decided to move in a new career direction. At the age of 25, after nine years of learning the violin, he was admitted to TNSO. Live classical Western music was a rarity at the time, since there were no orchestras in Taiwan except for TNSO. Taiwan’s oldest orchestra, the group was founded in Taipei in 1945 and today is based in Taichung, central Taiwan. “The vast majority of lovers of Western classical music in Taiwan at the time came into contact with it through vinyl records, which were mostly pirated as they were cheaper,” says Lo Kii-ming, a professor of musicology at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). The era’s dearth of live Western classical music contributed to the popularity of the quartet Liao formed with three other musicians, including David C.L. Tai—sometimes with piano accompaniment provided by Liao’s wife Chen Lu-ning—as they toured around Taiwan in 1958, giving more people the opportunity to listen.

Younger Generations

While still performing with TNSO, Liao founded the Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra (TCSO) in 1968, which initially accepted about 60 children and teenagers. “I focused on the younger generations to give promising musicians more chances to practice and perform,” Liao says. With TCSO, Taiwan saw the birth of its first private orchestra, one that is even a year older than the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the second oldest public orchestra on the island. “It’s by no means easy to manage a private orchestra,” NTNU’s Lo says. “Finding a space for so many people to practice and rehearse alone can be a headache.”

It was even more difficult to start a performing group in the late 1960s than it is today, the academic adds, as the Council for Cultural Affairs, which is responsible for assisting artists and art groups by, for example, providing government subsidies, was not established until 1981. And unlike the public orchestras, which were fully sponsored by the government, Liao had to rely on his own private resources to develop his. This was especially true in the early stages of TCSO, as Liao’s home often served as a practice venue and the kitchen, his wife recalls, was always available to prepare food for the young members.

The newly founded orchestra needed someone to direct the music, however, and Liao was the obvious choice. In this manner, the course of events drew him into taking on the role of conductor, although this was not his original intent. Liao thus began to study conducting in his free time even as he started TCSO, marking the beginning of a long—but ultimately rewarding—learning process.

Overseas Tours

As if starting an orchestra and learning to conduct were not challenging enough, Liao did much more with TCSO that deeply impressed Lo, who was on the panel of judges that decided on the winner from the shortlist of candidates for the 2009 National Award for Arts in music. Only two years after the orchestra was founded, Liao began to take the group overseas, starting with a one-week performance tour in Japan, followed by trips to the United States and Europe. Of all the international performances, Liao is especially proud of the one at the Youth and Music Festival in Vienna in 1980, where TCSO won first prize in the orchestra performance category. “At the time it wasn’t easy to travel abroad, and even less so when you had to bring along a large orchestra,” Lo says.

Liao’s funding difficulties with TCSO began to ease after the Century Music Foundation began operating in 1976. The foundation’s mission is to support TCSO performances and promote classical music to the general public. With donations mainly from music-loving businesspeople, TCSO also established a “pickup” group—a pool of available musicians—hiring them to play for a single concert or a limited period of time.

The next year saw Liao continue his education in conducting, although this time in a more formal manner, when he studied in Vienna, Austria. Then, in 1990, he began studying at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, where he majored in conducting. With such a deep background in music, the coursework went quickly, and he received his master’s degree in 1991.

Gentlemanly Gestures

Liao’s years of formal and informal education as well as his lifelong involvement have resulted, according to NTNU’s Lo Kii-ming, in a conducting style marked by gentlemanly, succinct gestures that give clear instructions, rather than by exaggerated movements.

Despite all the time and energy required to serve as a conductor and music director for several major orchestras in Taiwan as well as TCSO, Liao continues to seek new challenges. One of them is directing performances of modern pieces by local composers rather than his standard fare of Western classics mostly by pre-20th century European masters. “It’s especially energy-consuming to handle new compositions because they’re not as familiar to the conductor as the famous ones by established composers from the West,” Lo says. “In these cases, composers often have to attend the rehearsals so that the conductor can consult them.” Liao, however, has been quite willing to take up the challenge, once even conducting performances of six modern pieces by Taiwanese composers on a single night in 1982. “That’s amazing,” Lo says. “Taiwan’s orchestras have given more attention to locally created pieces in recent years, but Liao has done so for a long time.”

Neither does Liao balk at the challenge of directing grand and complicated performances. One of his earliest complex efforts was a 1975 performance of Tosca, a sweeping, three-act operatic work by Giacomo Puccini set against the background of Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. More recently, in 2006 Liao conducted the combination of the TCSO and several choral groups in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. In 2008, Liao released an album of Beethoven’s symphonies consisting of nine works performed by TCSO over the years, including the 2006 Symphony No. 9 performance, to mark the orchestra’s 40th anniversary.

Full Range

Liao has always been willing to use a full range of musical instruments—however rare or expensive—if that is what is called for in the original score, electing, for example, to use the cembalo or harp instead of the more common piano. Under his guidance, musicians who are proficient with rarer instruments have gained precious opportunities to perform and continue making progress in the world of music.

Perhaps only his great passion for music can explain Liao’s single-minded focus and long-term devotion to his work. “I’m not interested in and know nothing about other things,” Liao says humbly. Even while on performance tours abroad, Liao recalls, he often chose to study and memorize scores during breaks, and even turned down invitations for short sightseeing trips. “There was never enough time,” he says. “I had to make good use of it by studying more and learning more.”

Liao also teaches what he has learned and studied for so long, having held faculty positions at Chinese Culture University, NTNU and NTUA, where he still teaches. “Many in this arena have been taught by him, either directly or indirectly,” says musicology professor Lo Kii-ming, noting that by “indirectly” she means those who have been taught in turn by Liao’s students.

“He has influenced me through his personal example, such as his attitudes toward work and people,” says Roger Chiang, one of the two current concertmasters at Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Chiang, now 35, played the violin in the TCSO from his early teens to his early 20s. He notes that Liao was always ready to help arrange chairs and music stands before a rehearsal or performance, something other conductors might consider trivial, but an act that left a deep impression on Chiang. “Most people who have his high social profile and status wouldn’t bother to do such a thing, but he’s different. He’s totally dedicated to music,” says Chiang, who still performs occasionally with TCSO. Even today, though suffering from back problems that limit his movements, Liao continues to conduct sitting on a chair, sometimes sharing the job with his son Liao Chia-hong, a prominent violinist and NTNU professor.

Recognizing Conductors

According to Lo, composers tend to have a better chance to win the National Award for Arts than conductors because they play the role of creating the music. This fact, however, only serves to underscore the significance of Liao winning the honor. “There was no great disagreement among the judges when discussing Liao’s qualifications for the award,” Lo says, adding that recognizing conductors with awards also focuses attention on the orchestras they conduct, which helps with the development of classical music in general.

Over the course of time, thanks largely to the efforts of its founder, the musicians who have been involved in TCSO have become something akin to a large family, with Liao serving as the head. That family now consists of many members such as Chiang who have gone on to become movers and shakers in the classical music circle in Taiwan. A major booster of Western classical music since Taiwan was still a place where pirated vinyl records were the main source of enjoyment for music aficionados, Liao certainly deserves the respect accorded to him by his “family,” as well as all the applause he receives from audiences and critics today.

Write to Oscar Chung at oscar@mail.gio.gov.tw