Taiwan Today

A love of wind instrument music dating from nearly a century ago enriches Chiayi City to this day.

For over three decades Chiayi City in southern Taiwan has hosted the International Band Festival (IBF), bringing together dozens of domestic and international wind bands. According to Cultural Affairs Bureau (CAB) Chief Hsieh Yu-che (謝育哲), the festival traces its origins to the 1992 conference of the Asia and Pacific Band Directors Association held in Taipei City. The event featured 19 wind bands from Taiwan, Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Inspired by this gathering, the IBF was launched the following year with performances by local high school bands. In 1997 organizers began inviting international wind bands to participate, gradually expanding the festival’s global reach.

Last year’s edition was a vibrant demonstration of the city’s strong international ties, passion for music and lively spirit of celebration. On the second day of the festival, musicians gathered in historic downtown Chiayi and marched about 3 kilometers to the municipal stadium, where they played to packed seats. “The parades have always drawn crowds of people cheering and enjoying music along the streets,” said Sung Wei-ming (宋偉銘), conductor and president of the Chia Yi Wind Orchestra (CYWO). An earlier iteration of the CYWO managed the IBF independently until CAB took over in 2000. “We still work closely with them to ensure an exciting lineup and smoothly run festival,” Sung said, citing plans to commence an indoor performance series with a concert involving outstanding overseas musicians.

The festival’s international musical footprint began to grow in 2000, and by 2011 the city had become so well known to the global wind music community that the IBF was conducted on the sidelines of Manchester-based World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles’ (WASBE) biennial conference. Chiayi was the third Asian host of the event after Hamamatsu, Japan, and Singapore, Hsieh noted with pride. “World-class bands and musicians came to Chiayi to perform, expanding IBF’s international presence,” he said. Since that time each year has seen at least 10 groups from abroad join the festival, he added, and it has developed into a splendid year-end international event. The latest edition featured a dozen international groups: five from Japan and four from Hong Kong, as well as one each from France, South Korea and Thailand.

Chiayi’s first wind band was formed in 1931 by local students to a warm response from city residents, and as time went on the genre took root at schools in the area, according to the CAB. This long history culminated in 1993 with IBF’s first student concert, which acted as a catalyst to form the forerunner of the CYWO. Chiayi’s modern Music Hall, opened in 1992, is home to the municipal CAB and the venue for the IBF’s opening concert. The latest international artist at the concert was the Japanese composer and conductor Eiji Suzuki. “Musicians from other countries bring different viewpoints and rehearsal modes for our band members to experience,” said Tseng Ying-an (曾膺安), CYWO’s art director, who relished the opportunity for creative interaction and building cross-cultural understanding.

The festival has also been graced by international guests such as French conductor David Langlet and Japan’s Tomonori Sato, a former principal trumpet player with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Sato subsequently collaborated with National Chiayi University’s (NCYU) Department of Music Wind Ensemble. Ensemble conductor Lin Shih-wei (林士偉) is also assistant professor of music at the university and noted that the department has a significant role in IBF due to the academic and professional input that complements the festival’s most popular aspects, like the street parades.

Striking Chords
Since the late 2000s the NCYU band has performed at the IBF closing concert, which is often on New Year’s Day. Last July Lin led the NCYU band to Gwangju, South Korea, not only to attend WASBE’s conference and join the official concert program, but also to present new work in a composition competition. “It’s the first time that a university team from Taiwan has taken the WASBE event’s main stage, and for the occasion we played new pieces composed by NCYU music professors and local composers that incorporate Taiwan characteristics like Hakka musical elements. We were proud to bring these local Chiayi compositions, as well as a broader Taiwan identity, to a global stage,” Lin said.

New Tempo
The NCYU ensemble has regularly commissioned new work to expand its repertoire, Lin said. The same dynamism is evident in CYWO and its presence at the IBF. “We’ve always included all types of music,” Sung said, mentioning the eclectic genre mix at the 2024 festival when CYWO performed Mandopop, including Teresa Teng’s (鄧麗君) iconic 1970s song “The Moon Represents My Heart,” together with jazz pieces and performances by the Taipei Yuehfu Drum and Bugle Corps. The corps was set up in 1996 to popularize marching music and is a long-running participant in IBF programs. The night also featured performances by bands from two of the capital’s senior high schools, two Japanese high schools and a junior high school in Chiayi, as well as a Thai orchestra.

In addition to holding over 80 indoor and outdoor concerts, the latest IBF offered workshops on subjects ranging from musical expression and performance skills to instrument maintenance and repair. CYWO arranged for IBF guest composer and conductor Suzuki to offer workshop sessions at elementary, middle and high schools. Lin pointed out that contact with international professionals helps students cultivate a wider appreciation of music and the world in general, as well as introducing them to teachers from other countries and giving them an understanding of different styles of teaching. The NCYU band also undertakes tours abroad and recently spent August in Malaysia to hold workshops and perform at 20 schools and institutions. The tour’s finale was a farewell concert organized with the Outreach Youth Band in Kuala Lumpur. Lin found the experience inspiring, saying, “We interacted with such talented, multilingual musical students.”

From Lin’s perspective, the IBF offers a wider awareness of international music culture for the NCYU music department and other bands, which is an invaluable asset in a musical career. Both Lin and Sung praised the festival for its continuity and growth, which has acted as an overture for other similar festivals. Taoyuan International Band Festival has taken place in northern Taiwan since 2003 and in 2024 invited the prestigious Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra, a century-old band, to perform in the country for the first time. As part of that festival the Taoyuan Ten School Alliance and the Malaysia St. John Cadet Corps Band performed together, highlighting the importance of youth participation to growing interest in the music. In southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City, home to both the Kaohsiung Citizens Band, founded in 2005, and the Kaohsiung City Wind Orchestra, established in 2012, an annual wind band festival is an important part of its arts programming.

For decades the IBF has been a major influence in the development of Taiwan’s wind music ecosystem and has been a positive factor in cultural tourism for Chiayi City itself. Hsieh sees all this as a result of the music’s essential character. “Wind instruments require physical stamina, patience and teamwork,” he said. “These positive qualities translate well into building a thriving home for the style.”

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw