After leaving the Berliner Philharmoniker at the end of the ‘90s, Brett Dean, the Artist-in-Residence this season, has flourished the music world for almost twenty years in his roles of a composer, a conductor and a violist, from his unique perspective of which, Dean has created a lot of outstanding works of chamber music, drawn from literary, political, environmental, current events or visual stimuli. Dean describes the world around him with music, encompassing various topics about human life in the 21st century, such as reality shows, corporate vision, the natural environment, the gradual loss of handwritten letters... anything can fit into his music. He is not only a contemporary composer, but also an artist who depicts life in his music works which reflect contemporary ambiance. Dean and Ming-hsiu Yen, a distinguished composer in Taiwan, are invited in this program to start a dialogue, and Dean himself will perform a piece for solo viola, Skizzen für Siegbert (Sketches for Siegbert), composed in memory of his mentor and friend during his residence in Germany, Siegbert Ueberschaer. Also, the NSO soloists, with the composer as the second violist, will perform Epitaphs as quartet +1. As for the piece, Testament – Music for twelve violas, which Dean composed specially for his colleagues in the Berliner Philharmoniker, will be presented by the NSO viola section.