What can you convey in sixty seconds? Surprisingly much, as the One Minute Symphony project by the Residentie Orkest has shown for years. This season, the project is taking on an international dimension. The Residentie Orkest and the Taiwan Philharmonic are exchanging compositions by young artists. In this way, musical ideas travel between The Hague and Taipei—with chief conductor Jun Märkl serving as the connecting link.

Having an entire symphony orchestra at your disposal is a special moment for any young composer. At the same time, it can also be overwhelming. Where do you even begin, with all those instruments, timbres, and possibilities? The One Minute Symphony deliberately makes that vast world feel smaller. Composition students are tasked with writing a piece of about sixty seconds for symphony orchestra. Short enough to experiment, but long enough to present their own musical idea. At the “ Residentie Orkest ,” young composers have had the opportunity since 2017 to not only conceive their music on paper, but also to actually hear it performed by a professional orchestra and further develop it.

According to chief conductor Jun Märkl, it is precisely this limitation that makes the format so powerful. “One minute is the perfect framework for young composition students. You can express an idea, and as an audience and as musicians, we immediately hear: here is someone with a vision and talent.”

Märkl now has firsthand experience with the project from two perspectives. In addition to being the chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest , he is also the chief conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Taipei (Taiwan). He enjoyed the One Minute Symphony so much in The Hague that he brought the idea back to Taiwan. There, the orchestra collaborates with young composers from the Taipei National University of the Arts, who are also writing new, short orchestral works.

From The Hague to Taipei

Starting in the 2026–2027 season, these two initiatives will come together. The “ Residentie Orkest ” and the Taiwan Philharmonic will exchange “One Minute Symphonies.” Works created in The Hague will be performed in Taiwan, while compositions by Taiwanese students will also be performed in The Hague.

As a result, a project that starts with a single young composer and one minute of music suddenly gains an international reach. A composition isn’t performed just once, but is given a new life on the other side of the world. For the creators, this means an opportunity to hear their music performed by a different orchestra, for a different audience, and within a different cultural context.

The exchange has now officially begun. On September 5, the National Concert Hall in Taipei hosted the Asian premiere of Thomas Wenas’s *One Minute Symphony*, which originated from a project in The Hague organized by the * Residentie Orkest * and the Royal Conservatory. Jun Märkl conducted the Taiwan Philharmonic.

“That’s fantastic for composition students,” says Märkl. “They gain an international perspective, and their piece is performed more than once. At the same time, we get to hear here what young composers in Taiwan are thinking, and the audience there gets to hear what’s on the minds of young composers in The Hague.”