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作曲家 柯慶隆
西元1948年，台灣作曲家柯慶隆出生於台北士林，在1970年自中原理工學院取得土木工程學士學位之後，加入了台灣的空軍，在馬祖服務一年，退伍後轉往台北的商職學校，擔任數學老師。之後，柯慶隆前往美國奧克拉荷馬州立大學修習研究所課程，先後在1974和1976年，取得了在土木工程和機械工程的碩士學位。畢業後，他投入美國的科技產業，執行系統分析、通訊軟體運算、以及波音747和波音737飛行模擬器的設計，並且在1985年於奧克拉荷馬大學取得他的航太工程博士學位。
完成學業後，柯慶隆曾在奧克拉荷馬大學的航太學系擔任客座的助理教授，之後更受聘為密西根奧克蘭大學機械工程學系的教授。而在奧克蘭大學任教的期間，他也以航太飛行項目的研究員身分，前往美國太空總署在克里夫蘭的路威斯研究中心工作。柯慶隆對於研究的熱誠，也使他的論文登上許多重要期刊，無論是熱學、力學或工程科學，皆有精闢的觀點。在1993年到1998年間，他也受克萊斯勒公司的邀請，在美國汽車工業大城底特律，進行一系列的夏季研究。
不過，科學家柯慶隆，卻對音樂始終抱有熱情，當他還在台北成功高中就讀時，就開始自學鋼琴。可惜的是，柯慶隆的父親，總是對他的鋼琴演奏感到不滿，而基於這個原因，他的母親後來從日本買了小提琴給他，但是他仍舊沒有任何學習小提琴的機會，直到他在美國生活穩定之後，才開始學習音樂。
而他和作曲的淵源，是從他被聘為奧克蘭大學教授開始的。有一天，柯慶隆將他寫的一首小品，分享給同校的音樂系教授史丹利‧霍林沃斯，這首寫給鋼琴、小提琴和豎琴的樂曲，讓霍林沃斯印象深刻，他向柯慶隆指出了作品中的某些問題，並邀請他去自己的班上學習作曲。同時，霍林沃斯也將這首作品推薦給其他音樂系教授，他們同樣地對柯慶隆的作品感到驚艷，並邀請他去他們的課堂上學習各種作曲技巧，甚至在一年後，便開始鼓勵他創作大型作品。
只是，1991年的一場車禍意外，令柯慶隆的脊椎受到嚴重的損傷，雖然仍舊回到了教學崗位，但生理的病痛，卻造成他在音樂創作方面的力不從心。於是，與柯慶隆亦師亦友的霍林沃斯，開始積極地鼓勵，希望他別浪費自己的才華。而受到激勵的柯慶隆，展開了超過十年的復健，直到2010年，他下定決心開始創作一首鋼琴協奏曲。過去曾教導他的萊第亞斯頓博士，在讀過這首作品後，便針對第二和第三樂章的某些部分的，提供了一些建議，最後，柯慶隆的鋼琴協奏曲終於在2011年的12月宣告完成，他帶著作品到了維也納，以這首沒有二十世紀十二音列的前衛音響的迷人協奏曲，驚豔了錄音製作公司的雅羅斯拉夫‧史特拉納夫斯基，和鋼琴家亞當‧史特拉納夫斯基，他們馬上開始籌劃這首作品的錄製，並在2012年由亞當‧史特拉納夫斯基以及楊納傑克愛樂交響樂團，在捷克完成錄音。只不過，原本訂於2013年4月舉行的國家音樂廳巡演計畫，卻因為不能得到台灣任何官方或民間團體的贊助，無法成行。因此，柯慶隆和上揚唱片，決定發行這張專輯，與台灣愛樂者分享柯慶隆的音樂世界。
Composer: Kent Liaong Ko
Composer Ko Kent Liaong was born in Shulin, Taipei in 1948 and graduated from Chung Yuan College of Science and Engineering in 1970 with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. After serving a year in the Taiwanese Air Force as a construction officer in Matsu, he had taught mathematics at Douchiang Vocational School of Business in Taipei for a year before going to the United States for his graduate studies. He received a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1974 and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1976 from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He had worked as a systems analyst for Clay Bernard Systems International and the Automation Division of SPS Technologies, Incorporated in Tulsa, Oklahoma to design computer software for computer communication and for the controller of driverless vehicles. Later, he had worked as a software engineer for Burtek, Incorporated in Tulsa, Oklahoma to design software programs for Boeing 747 and Boeing 737 flight simulators and had worked as an engineering computer software programmer for Tranter, Incorporated in Tulsa, Oklahoma before he received his Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering at University of Okalahoma in Norman, Oklahoma in 1985. He taught graduate courses in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at University of Oklahoma as a visiting assistant professor before he was hired by the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan as an assistant professor. While he was at Oakland University, he was hired by NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio for two summers as a faculty research fellow to work on a space airplane project. Since he completed his graduate studies, he has published numerous research papers in Journal of Physics E, in American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal, in Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, in Journal of Mechanical Engineering, in International Journal of Nonlinear Mechanics, in Journal of Strain Analyses for Engineering Design, in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, in Journal of Engineering Science, and in Journal of Industrial Mathematics Society. He had also worked for Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, Michigan on several summer projects from 1993 to 1998.
Kent Liaong Ko started to teach himself playing piano when he was a high school student at Cheng Kong High School in Taipei. When he entered the college in Chung Li, his late mother bought a violin from Japan for him because his late father would get irritated whenever he played the piano. However, he didn’t have any violin lesson until he was working full time in industries in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After he was hired as an engineering professor at Oakland University, he wrote a short piece of music for piano, violin, and harp. He showed it to Late Composer and Professor Stanley Hollingsworth in the Music Department of Oakland University. Dr. Hollingsworth was so impressed with his writing; nevertheless, Dr. Hollingsworth pointed out to him certain problems about the writing and invited him to go to his class to study composition. Dr. Hollingsworth also showed the writing to several composition and music theory professors at Oakland University, including Late Professor Ronald Allvin, Dr. Karl Boelter, Dr. Lettie Alston, and Dr. David Dawson. They were very impressed with the writing and also invited him to go to their classes to study various subjects on music composition. Unfortunately, Kent Liaong Ko had a car accident in 1991 and had a very serious spinal injury due to that accident. After he had studied with composition professors for a year, Dr. Hollingsworth asked him to start to write music for big orchestras. Because of the spinal injury, Kent Liaong Ko told Dr. Hollingsworth that he had to forget about the dream of writing good music because of the accident and probably even had to quit the engineering job at the university. Dr. Hollingsworth was very disappointed and told him that he should not waste his talent of writing good music. Since that time, Kent Liaong Ko had spent more than a decade going through various therapies trying to correct the spinal problems. It was not until 2010, he had decided to start writing this music. Dr. Lettie Alston learned that he had started to write this piano concerto and immediately offered to him several suggestions on certain parts of the second and the third movements. Finally, the writing was completed in December, 2011 and he took the music score to Vienna to meet with the President of the recording company, Mr. Jaroslav Stranavsky and the pianist, Mr. Adam Stranavsky. Both of them were so pleased that the music was not in the style of 12-tone 20th century music and immediately proposed to have the live-concert premiere in Taiwan instead of having it in Europe. The music was recorded in Czech Republic in 2012 and the former director of Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra had a plan to have a 10-day concert tour in Taiwan to perform this music in the National Concert Hall in Taipei in April 2013. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get any agencies in Taiwan, including the Taiwanese government, to sponsor this concert tour. Therefore, Kent Liaong Ko and Sun Rise Records decided to publish this compact disc to make the music available for the Taiwanese people.
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