The JU PERCUSSION GROUP - China
The JU PERCUSSION GROUP (JPG), founded by percussionist Tzong-Ching Ju in January 1986, is the first percussion ensemble established in Taiwan. It consists of 13 talented percussionists and one composer in residence. The members possess transcendental virtuosity in playing Western percussion instruments as well as Chinese gong-drum music, and other form of Asian traditional music. This is a group devoting itself in performing, education and percussion promoting.
Following the direction of Tzong-Ching Ju, the JPG has become well-known around the world for its innovative blending of East and West, traditional and contemporary. The JPG has pioneered the development of the percussive arts in Taiwan, and through its more than 100 domestic and international performances annually and reaching approximately 150,000 audiences has put Taiwan’s name on the international percussion map.
Since its establishment, the JPG has performed in Asia, Europe, Australia and the America. Since 1993 the Group was joined by leading percussion ensembles from the United States, Japan, Korea, France, Sweden, Hungary, Germany, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands at Taipei International Percussion Convention (TIPC). The JPG was invited to perform at Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Dallas (Texas) and Louisville (Kentucky), U.S.A., in 2000 and 2003. The JPG collaborated with the world-famous Les Percussions de Strasbourg (France) on a cultural-exchange project, Les Douze Lunes du Serpent, premiered in December 2001. Invited by the Budapest Spring Festival, the JPG and the Amadinda Percussion Group of Hungary jointly presented the grand percussive work Stoicheia, written by James Wood, in 2002. In the same year, the JPG participated in the Beijing Music Festival in China and the year followed, the Group was invited to take part in the Chekhov International Theatre Festival. The participation in both events received great critical acclaim.
Aside from being featured in the percussion concerts, the JPG has also performed with the Cloud Gate Dance Theater and the Lanling Theater Workshop, touring nationally and internationally. In 1992, the JPG undertook a series of experimentation in music theater, which resulted in three major multi-media productions, Fantasia, in 1993, and Dream of Chimes in 1994, and See the Music in 2001. These productions incorporated other art forms and created a new audio and visual ambiance.
In July 1989, four years after Ju Percussion Group was found, the Ju Percussion Group Foundation (The Foundation) was established to be in charge of the administration of the Group. The mission of the Foundation is to make music universal and readily accessible to the public and to enhance the percussive arts in performance, composition and research in Taiwan. Currently, the Foundation includes a Board of Directors, headed by Chairperson Mr. Hsin-Ho Lin. The administration is lead by Executive Director Shu-Kang Liu and operated by five divisions, with 20 professional staff of art administration. Besides the JPG, the Foundation is also in charge of the performances of the JPG 2, Jumping Percussion Group and Juvenile Percussion Ensembles.
The JPG has released 15 highly acclaimed recordings. Two of them have been honored with the Golden Tripod Award. They are Keep the Fire Burning for Best Performance in 1988 and the Mountain's Beat for Best Musical Publication in 1990. The live recording of the 10th anniversary concert in 1996 was released as a special double-disc set. This recording received the 1997 Golden Melody Award, an equivalent of the Grammy in Taiwan, for Best Performer. In the same year, “Beat the Drum” won the award for Best Composition in the classical music category. In 2002, the JPG releases its 15th anniversary CD set Shiny Days.
The JPG has actively cultivated the percussion music environment by regularly commissioning and premiering the compositions written by Taiwanese very own composers, such as Nan-Chang Chien (whose Beat the Drum has become a classic), Hwang-Long Pan, Shui-Long Ma, Loong-Hsing Wen, Ting-Lien Wu, Gordon S. Chin, Chien-Hui Hung, Wan-Jen Huang, Chung-Kun Hung and Kuen-Yean Hwang. In addition, the arrangements of numerous traditional Chinese/Taiwanese folk tunes and children’s songs by the Group have contributed to the steadily growing popularity of percussion music in Taiwan.
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