Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival '96

26 - 27 Oct 96

Taiwan Railway Building, Taipei

We were invited to the First Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival as guest of honour and Ho Pak Cheong (our first treble harmonica player) was invited to be the adjudicator for the parallel contest. The Festival was packed with harmonica events in a weekend, including contest, gala concerts and workshops.

The Festival and our trip were both tremendously successful, due largely to the efforts put into by the organizer: Harmonica Art Promotion Association (HAPA). There are many enthusiastic, energetic and potential young harmonica players there and they show keen interests in harmonica, in our group and in our music.

We played for 15 minutes in the Gala Concert on 26 Oct. Immediately after the Festival, we ran four 30-minute performances on 28-29 Oct for several universities and high schools in northern and central Taiwan, with a total audience of over 10000.

In gala concert.

Performing tour after the festival.

The workshop given by Ho Pak Cheong on 27 Oct, entitled "the skills of playing chromatic harmonica and the art of harmonica quintet", was attended by more than 100 harmonica enthusiasts, including professional players. In one and a half hour, the workshop was packed with basic and advanced skills of playing chromatic harmonica and the Quintet shared her experience in the formation and development of this form of ensemble, all of these supplemented by live demonstration by Ho and the Quintet.

Here are some more information on the Festival...