Taiwan Today

Taiwan’s musical world received a pleasant surprise Dec. 3 to learn that two locally produced albums have been nominated for the Grammy Awards. Both albums were released by Wind Music International Corp., a Taiwan-founded company with offices in the United States. “We tapped into the American market as early as 1995. For many years we have been sending our records to compete for the Grammy Awards, and I am thrilled to see two of our albums nominated at once in 2009,” said Ken Yang, general manager of the company. “Drum Music Land,” created by Ten Drum Art Percussion Group from southern Taiwan, was nominated for the Best Traditional World Music Album, the first time a “made-in-Taiwan” album has been nominated. The album, due to compete with four other finalists featuring Celtic, Iraqi-Indian, Latin and African music, recounts the battle of Chinese general Zheng Cheng-gong, better known as Koxinga, against Dutch colonialists in Taiwan in the 17th century. “A variety of Chinese elements in Taiwan’s drumming art were brought along by the general back then. I wanted to pay tribute to Koxinga with this album,” composer Ken Hsieh explained. With support from the government, Ten Drum has toured the world to introduce Taiwan’s drumming art to an expanding international audience. “Tathagata,” the other chosen album, was nominated for an award in the Best Recording Package category. Its cover was designed by Cheng Szu-wei and Huang Hui-chen, a husband-and-wife team. “We spent a week hand-painting the veins of a Bodhi-tree leaf hoping to manifest the Buddhist motif of this album. The process was almost like a kind of Buddhist practice. We are glad our efforts have been recognized by the Grammy judges,” they said. Founded in 1958, the Grammy Awards gives prizes annually to selected professionals for their outstanding achievements in the music industry. The up-coming awards ceremony will be held Jan. 31, 2010. (TYH-HZW)