Arts & Entertainment

Heart Strings

The Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council Presents:

 Heart Strings

Featuring the Seattle Chinese Orchestra and the Zhang-Xiang Fei Violin Studio

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Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

“Music is love in search of a word.” – Sidney Lanier

Find out what's happening in Shoreline-Lake Forest Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council wants to help you zing the strings of your valentine’s heart this year.   Please join us for a romantic pre-Valentine’s Day concert on February 12, 2011 as we present Heart Strings featuring the Seattle Chinese Orchestra with the Zhang-Xiang Fei Violin Studio and vocalists Roland Ken Sabalza and Chelsea Belle Baker.  Concert goers will be treated to a selection of romantic compositions such as As Time Goes By, Butterfly Lovers, Summertime, O Mio Babbino Caro and The Merry Widow Waltz.  Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for students/seniors. 

This concert is co-sponsored by the International Performing Arts Organization.

Shorecrest Performing Arts Center is located at 15343 25th Ave NE, Shoreline, WA 98155.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.shorelinearts.net or by calling 206-417-4645. 

More on the Performers:

The Seattle Chinese Orchestra

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. The forefather of the SCO was a Chinese folk music ensemble founded by the famous musician Warren Chang, who was already nationally renowned in China and in the United States at the time. In the summer of 1986, respected composer and conductor Mr. Zhenfen Huang, who had arrived just a little over a year earlier in Seattle, also joined the group.

The premiere of SCO was a big milestone in Chinese music development in the West Coast of the United States. Since its inception, SCO has hosted numerous concerts and dance shows with live orchestra accompaniment and has been widely accepted and applauded. As the years have gone by, the orchestra has grown to become more professional, having more members with greater musical talent and experience. 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 and the current conductor is Mr. Roger Nelson.

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.

The Seattle Chinese Orchestra includes not only Chinese musicians but also American musicians who are lovers of Chinese culture and well-versed in Chinese music as well. To further develop and improve the orchestra, SCO is constantly recruiting new members.

Roland Ken Sabalza

Baritone Roland Ken Sabalza has performed as a soloist in Haydn’s St. Nicholas Mass, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, in Shoreline Community College’s Opera Workshops The Tales of Hoffmann, Die Fledermaus, the world-premiere of The Legend of Poker Alice, as well as SCC’s musical theater productions of West Side Story and The Music Man.  He has performed solo recitals in Seattle, the Eastside, and Cabaret fundraisers in Spokane and Idaho. In June 2010, he was a Vocal Apprentice for the Astoria Music Festival, performing scenes from The Magic Flute and the festival’s main opera, Berg’s Wozzeck.  He recently performed a concert of opera scenes with Fat Chance! Opera Company and performed in Eye Hear, a concert featuring new works by composers from Bellingham.  He received his BA in Music from Western Washington University and is currently a freelance vocalist.

Chelsea Belle Baker

Chelsea Belle Baker is currently a Music Education major at Seattle Pacific University. Chelsea Belle is part of the Concert Choir at the University, which recently performed at Benaroya Hall. Chelsea holds an AA from Bellevue College, where she performed with the ACappella Choir there for two years, and was the soprano soloist in the Faure Requiem. Her other performing credits include several recitals with Roland Ken Sabalza and Josh Brown. She was in the Summer '10 Fat Chance show, performing as Octavian in the Presenatation of the Rose, the Third Lady in the opening scene from the Magic Flute, Suzuki in the Flower Duet from Madame Butterfly, and the Countess in the Letter Scene from the Marriage of Figaro.


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