After a ten-year tenure as the director of Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra, Shao Chia Lü held his farewell concert titled Lü and Mahler 9 featuring Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, which was also the Bohemian Austrian composer’s final symphony. Mahler is one of his favourite composers, whose life and not just music also resonates with Lü, who has chosen to “pursue musical truths and accept all the challenges this implies”. Lü, who was raised in a musically appreciative family, never considered music for a career until after college, when he was prompted to study conducting in the US and then Vienna. His career was launched in Europe, where he has served as music director of the Koblenz Theatre and Staatsoper Hannover and conducted several other leading European orchestras. Deciding it was time to offer good music to his own people, he returned to Taiwan in 2010 to direct the NSO.