L'Ensemble YU, a band formed by Taiwanese musician Wang Ya-ping (王雅平), will present its music online on Nov. 14 as part of the 2020 Jazzycolors Festival, which will go virtual this year as France is now in a national lockdown to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
Organized by the Forum of Foreign Cultural Institutes in Paris, the annual event will broadcast pre-recorded performances by L’Ensemble YU and musicians from Latin America, the Mediterranean, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East online from Nov. 13. to Dec. 1.
L'Ensemble YU, known for finding its inspiration deep in Taiwanese cultural roots, is set to bring audiences in France songs that established the band in the music scene, as well as its recent creations, which were often adapted from the Taiwanese folk repertoire, such as Sabanga Wula, Goat Ia Chhiu (月夜愁), and La Saravan.
Founded by France-based Wang in 2016, L'Ensemble YU gained fame with its performance at the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts in Paris that same year.
L'Ensemble YU is a bridge between the East and West, ancient and modern, the millenary tradition of Taiwanese music and the instinctive, immediate and ephemeral jazz, according to an introduction at the forum’s website.
In addition to Wang, the band is composed of wind instruments master Didier Malherbe, cellist Guillaume Latil, Tabla player Mathias Pirollo, and sitar player Kengo Saito.
This is not the first time the band hit the stage at the annual event. In 2017, L'Ensemble YU represented Taiwan to participate at the festival, performing jazz-infused Goa̍t-iā Chhiû, a traditional song of Taiwan's Pingpu tribes, as well as Hakka punt poling folk song and tea-picking tunes, Taiwanese Hakka mountain songs.
Visit here to learn more about this year's Jazzycolors Festival.