The New Year Brings Chinese Music to Seattle

In the spirit of cultural sharing and collaborative willingness, Warren Chang, the Founder and Music Director of the Chinese Arts and Music Association, has created a theme this season of presenting Chinese traditional music at Western-oriented musical institutions in the Puget Sound region. On Friday, January 16th (tomorrow) at 6:00 p.m., in a mixed program of the Eastern and Western repertoire, the Seattle Symphony will be performing the beautiful and lush Butterfly Lovers Concerto, not with a violin soloist as is typical for this piece, but rather with Mr. Chang playing the erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed bowed instrument. Then, on January 25th at 3:00 p.m., the US China Music Ensemble, again directed by Mr. Chang, will celebrate the Chinese New Year with a concert at St. Mark’s Cathedral, the vast acoustics of which should provide an expansive aural experience for those who are able to attend.

We got a preview of what's to come on December 30th at the Bellevue Arts Museum, as an intimate audience lifted glasses of champagne in anticipation of the New Year and in admiration of the diverse collection of dance and music on display. In a relaxed and casual fashion, Mr. Chang herded the various artists on and off the floor space before us, which served as a makeshift stage. A few musicians possessed remarkable virtuosity with their respective instrument, but as much as these prodigies deserve individual recognition, such will have to wait, since we did not have a program to inform us of their names.

As a guitarist, we were amazed to behold the similarity in the right-hand technique of the pipa players to that of the flamenco rasqueado, which is the quick outward snapping of the fingers that produces a crisply pronounced rhythmic strumming sound.

Although none of their players participated, this event was sponsored by the Bellevue Philharmonic as part of their effort to encourage the burgeoning cultural offerings of the Eastside, embracing not just the Western performing arts, but the entire spectrum of multiculturalism which defines modern Bellevue.

Kung Hee Fat Choi!