Chai Found Music Workshop (Taiwan)
Chinese & Taiwanese music with the accordion's ancestor, the sheng

This stellar group of musicians from Taiwan represents over 2,000 years of Chinese musical history. Chai Found Music Workshop draws from folk and classical traditions, from the courts of ancient China to the teahouses of the countryside and the mountains of Taiwan, to present a thoroughly modern spectacle. Of special interest to our festival is their virtuosity on the sheng. The sheng is a wildely complex Chinese mouth organ and the ancestor of the accordion. It originated in Southeast Asia from natural materials like bamboo and gourds and was the first instrument to employ the free reeds that are found in all accordions today. Brought out of China in the 18th century by a Jesuit priest, the sheng inspired the creation of the first accordions.

Chai Found Music Workshop has performed throughout Taiwan and across Europe. Their speciality is sizhu music, or chamber music. Chinese musical instruments are organized into eight categories according to the materials used to make them: metal, stone, silk, bamboo, clay, earth, leather, and wood. The characters for the silk and bamboo categories ("si" and "zhu") refer to this musical genre which originated in the 19th century tea houses of the Southern Chinese provinces. Folk musicians gathered at these teahouses, sitting around a table, playing music, and drinking tea. Enjoy the spectacle of modern Chinese and Taiwanese music drawn from ancient roots with Chai Found Music Workshop.

Photo by Chia-Chi Chang and Klaus Bru