Three Generations, One Jazzy Heartbeat

Experience “Three Generations, One Jazzy Heartbeat”—a live performance by The Stacey Wei Quartet—at George Town Festival 2025. Formed exclusively for the festival, this intergenerational ensemble brings together leading voices in Taiwanese jazz, with a spotlight on 75-year-old Rich Huang, a national treasure and pioneering figure whose cross-genre collaborations helped shape Taiwan’s early jazz landscape. Joining the quartet as a special guest is acclaimed Malaysian pianist and composer Tay Cher Siang. Together, they’ll deliver a rich musical journey through original compositions and thoughtfully selected works that resonate deeply with both Taiwanese and Malaysian audiences.

Stacey Wei Quartet
Formed especially for George Town Festival 2025, The Stacey Wei Quartet unites four outstanding musicians across three generations to offer a vibrant snapshot of Taiwan’s evolving jazz scene. Led by trumpeter Stacey Wei—an accomplished performer, educator, and curator—the quartet highlights legendary drummer Rich Huang, a national treasure whose six-decade career spans genres and generations. A pioneer of Taiwan’s first wave of jazz musicians, Huang honed his craft alongside American and Filipino artists during the era of U.S. military presence on the island. The ensemble also includes Atayal pianist and longtime Wei collaborator Guras Batu, as well as rising double bassist Liu Yu-Chia, one of Taiwan’s most respected young jazz talents.

Trumpet │ Stacey Wei 
Stacey Wei is a full-time associate professor/chairperson of the Department of Music and the director of the Arts Centre at National Dong Hwa University. He holds an M.A. in Jazz Trumpet Performance from Queens College, the City University of New York. An avid jazz musician in Taiwan, Wei served as the teaching director for the NTCH Summer Jazz Camp from its first to its fourteenth session and has been the curator of the NTCH Summer Jazz Project since 2012. In 2021, he released his debut album, "Forty-Three," which features his original compositions and was nominated for "Best Instrumental Album" at the 33rd Golden Melody Awards.

Drums │ Rich Huang
Touted as the "King of Drums" in Taiwan, Huang was born in 1950 and has a music career spanning nearly half a century. He began his professional career as a jazz drummer in 1967 and became the drummer for the CCK American Military Club in Taichung the following year. In 1974, he joined the Taiwan Television Band, a well-known band affiliated with a major broadcasting network. His recording career gained momentum in 1975, and he has since set a record for the largest number of songs recorded by an individual in Taiwan. His works span a range of genres, including pop, classical, jazz, and traditional. Notably, he is the first drum artist in Taiwan to sign a contract with the American brand Zildjian. He was honoured with an award for outstanding contribution at the 7th Golden Indie Music Awards in 2016 and received a special contribution award at the 31st Golden Melody Awards in 2020.

Piano │ Guras Batu 
Guras Batu, who grew up learning classical music, earned his B.A. in music from Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. He later studied jazz under pianists Kaoru Uno and Chang Kai-Ya and has been active in the music scene since 2005.

He has performed at the Taichung Jazz Festival and the National Theater and Concert Hall Summer Jazz Festival. Additionally, he has served multiple times as a piano instructor at various music camps. Guras collaborates regularly with both Taiwanese and Japanese musicians. From 2015 to 2021, he participated in the notable calligrapher Tong Yang-Tze's "Sao+" crossover theatre project as well as the "Reading Clothes" fashion design show. Currently, he is a member of the "Qingcong Jazz" duo.

Double Bass │ Liu Yu-Jia 
Liu is a double bass player and composer with a diverse musical background. He studied Chinese traditional music at the National Tainan University of the Arts and pursued jazz at the National Dong Hwa University, where he focused on double bass in the Jazz Group. In 2015, he took on a teaching role at the National Theater and Concert Hall Jazz Music Camp, which inspired his commitment to jazz education and original music creation.

In 2016, Liu won first prize at the Taipei Jazz Newcomer Competition. Two years later, he launched a music tour project featuring original compositions alongside German pianist Julian Moreen and formed a quartet named after himself. His performance experience spans various genres, including film soundtracks, album recordings, dance, musicals, and modern theatre, both locally and internationally.

Keyboard | Tay Cher Siang
Tay Cher Siang is one of Southeast Asia’s finest jazz pianists, composers, arrangers and producers, and currently lives in Kuala Lumpur. With an early training in classical music, he took up jazz in his teens and began a musical odyssey as a jazz pianist. He studied with the well-known teachers James Miltenberger and Paul Scea in the United States, before returning to Malaysia to immerse himself in jazz education at a number of universities, while also teaching at his private studio and giving masterclasses and jazz clinics. As a pianist and composer, Cher Siang has toured extensively, performing in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America with both the multinational band Unit Asia, and with his own band WVC Jazz – one of Southeast Asia’s leading contemporary jazz ensembles.