When the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra presented its 12th concert of the Taipei Music Festival at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, the baton was wielded by its diminutive but formidable lady conductor, Helen Quach.
Wearing a black chi pao rimmed with silver the elegant conductor wore a calm and childlike smile belying the passion she mustered with her baton, which seemed like a magic wand in her hands. The music seemed to pervade her whole being, even to circulate in her blood. By nodding her head, clenching her fist or waving her arms, she evoked feelings which enraptured the audience. Her facial expressions were even more meaningful and vivid. Sometimes she would place her fingers on her lips as she smiled intoxicatingly; on other occasions she more resembled an angry lion as she gesticulated wildly with flowing hair and glowing eyes.
When the last note of the music had died down and the applause welled through the auditorium, the world-renowned conductor had once again won the hearts of the marveling music-lovers.
Since her childhood in Saigon, Helen Quach has always been sensitive to music. With the encouragement of her mother, herself a piano teacher, she went to study music in Australia at the age of 10 and entered the Sydney Conservatoire of Music at age 15, where she majored in piano, composition, music history, musical structure and orchestra. What she considers to be the turning point in her life occurred when she won a full scholarship to study conducting with Nicolai Malko in 1960. She said: "Without the instruction of this great master, I could never have become a conductor." Later, Malko allowed her to conduct the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, one of the world's largest, on five occasions. In 1965, she went to Italy to practice with two other great masters, John Barbirolli and Carlo Zecchi.
Quach considers that a great conductor, in addition to being gifted, must receive good instruction, have insight into the characteristics of all the musical instruments, and engage in strenuous research and practice.
At the age of 26, representing the Republic of China, she won the first prize in the 1967 Dimitri Mipropolous competition for conductors in the Carnegie Hall in New York, and was later appointed assistant to Leonard Bernstein, director-conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The work whose interpretation brought her fame was Aaron Copeland's "El Salon Mexico," composed in 1936, and she gained more popular acclaim for her conducting of Beethoven's Leonore No. 3 overture. Of this performance, New York critics used such terms as "firm and vigorous," and "symmetrical, dramatic and with high potential." One critic jokingly referred to her as a "lady tyrant" because of her self-confidence and demanding bearing. It was an epithet that was to stick, as she conquered countless hearts in many nations with her inspired talents.
Her dedication to promoting Chinese music goes back to 1965 when she trained a "BBB" children's orchestra in Tainan in southern Taiwan. In 1969, under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Education, she organized a children's orchestra to perform at the opening of the Cultural Center of the Philippines at the invitation of First Lady Imelda Marcos. In 1976, she warmed the hearts of American music lovers in 18 states during a series of 26 concerts given by the Chinese teenage Huamei Orchestra. She is firm in her belief that music is a beautiful international language which is the most suitable medium in which to promote international friendship.
In answer to numerous requests, local businessman Tsai Chen-nan provided NT$15 million (US$650,000) to start a foundation to enable Miss Quach to organize the 62-member Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra. The Republic of China's First Lady of the Podium finally decided to end her wanderings and come home to stay. Her long-cherished dream of organizing a quality symphony orchestra in her own country has finally been realized. She explained that the main objective of the Taipei Philharmonic is to develop musical talent by offering incentives and material rewards. "Under current education policy, musical academies and departments of universities turn out teachers and amateur players rather than professional musicians. To remedy this situation, individual efforts must make up for shortcomings in musical leadership."
Helen Quach is a strict disciplinarian who sets high standards for her performers. After taking over the leadership of the Taipei Philharmonic, she has devoted herself to training and planning concerts, and endlessly listens to tapes and records during the course of her studies. Her only recreations are riding occasionally at the Youth Park in Taipei, and swimming at a hotel pool. Under the "lady tyrant's" dynamic and inspiring leadership, the orchestra is growing from strength to strength. The first season's concerts have drawn enthusiastic audiences which have filled the 3,000-seat Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to capacity.
"This is a good beginning," she modestly states. With a reputation already well entrenched in Taiwan for being confident and forceful, Miss Quach stresses what she considers to be a sacred mission for the Taipei Philharmonic－to make known to the West the feelings and aspirations of the Chinese people. She does not subscribe to the theory that a Chinese orchestra must play traditional Chinese music to retain its national characteristics. She explains: "As a universal language, music does not need to be labeled. Only good technique counts. The stereotyped Chinese classical music may not reflect the spirit of the contemporary Chinese." With these theories, Miss Quach has gone a long way to putting the Republic of China on the world map of Classical music.
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Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
Helen Quach conducting the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra during their rehearsals.
