2008
Seattle Chinese Orchestra 2008
Enjoy an evening with the nationally known Seattle Chinese Orchestra. Bring the entire family to a wonderful cultural event and learn about the unique instruments from China. They will perform traditional and modern music. The Seattle Chinese Orchestra (SCO) is the only traditional Chinese orchestra in the Pacific Northwest. Its mission is to advocate and promote traditional Chinese music to the Western world.
Currently, SCO has over forty members, and are under four divisions: bow-stringed instruments, plucked instruments, woodwind instruments and percussion. The Music Director is Mr. Warren Chang [Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon] and the current Director is Bainbridge's own Roger Nelson.
Warren Chang - President of the Chinese Music and Arts Association, is an expert in Er-hu, which brought him International acclaim when he recorded the soundtrack for the epic movies "The Soong Sisters" and "Shanghai Red." He has appeared a number of times with American symphonies combining the sound of Er-hu with western sounds. He won the Governor's Award in 2005, presented to him by Governor Christine Gregoire.
Bainbridge Island's own Roger Nelson, who conducted the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra for 13 seasons, is now the conductor of Seattle Chinese Orchestra. Roger is the first foreign music teacher to teach at Qufu University, Shandong Province, China. While there, Roger established an orchestra to perform Haydn's "Surprise Symphony", filling in as needed with Chinese traditional instruments and accordions.
The repertoire of the Seattle Chinese Orchestra is very rich and versatile, including pieces from traditional Chinese music, Chinese regional and folk music, music by contemporary Chinese composers (like those composed by Mr. Zhenfen Huang), as well as classical music and music from other parts of the world rearranged for Chinese instruments. See the Seattle Chinese Orchestra's web site at: www.uschinamusic.org
Special thanks to Frontier Bank and Village Music at Lynwood Center for supporting this presentation of the Seattle Chinese Orchestra.
