True North Festival was the initial project undertaken officially by the Foundation in 1997. It was a large scale intergovernmental cooperative venture involving work with both Canadian Foreign Affairs and several levels of the Taiwanese Government along with substantial corporate support.

In terms of Canadian music, the Foundation created 12 concert programs featuring both historic and contemporary Canadian musical repertoire. The performers included Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska-Quilico, vocalists Louis Quilico and Joel Katz, the Aeolian Winds, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Danish pianist Bjørn Rasmussen, as well as the Taipei and Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestras. Venues included the Chiang Kai-Shek National Concert Hall in Taipei, Novel Hall of the Koo Foundation in Taipei, and the Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Centre in Kaohsiung.