2026.10.2. Ennio Morricone Seattle Symphony

10/2, Friday. 8pm. Ennio Morricone: The Official Symphonic Experience. Trailers of some movies are played on the screen while the Seattle Symphony played the sound track. But the Italian and French movies had no image. Not sure why? No trailer or no rights to play them? 2 clips of Morricone speaking, as well as a few directors and actors. I enjoyed the music very much. To prevent myself falling asleep, I took a nap before going to the concert. The sound track of Mission stayed in my head for the rest of the weekend. I decided to download it to my phone.

2026.7.23. Seattle Symphony String Quartet at Art Love Salon

7/23, Friday evening. Monthly (almost) music soiree at Art Love Salon. Today, it features Seattle Symphony Quartet:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465, "Dissonance"
• Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, "American"

    Emerson Millar, violin, Acting First Assistant Concertmaster
    Cameron Daly, violin, Associate Principal Second Violin
    Olivia Chew, viola
    Eric Han, cello

I really enjoyed the performance, especially "American" by Dvorak. Emerson and Cameron took turns to be the first violin here. At the begining of the 2nd half, Cameron did a brief intro to both pieces, which is helpful for non-musicians like me. A good turn-out. Not all seats were taken though.

2026.6.27. LA Children's Chorus

6/27, Saturday, 7pm. First time, I ever been inside of Plymouth United Church. Quite pretty, bright and airy. It's a treat to listen to LA Children's Chorus on their tour of the west coast. Today's short program is:

Be Like the Bird                    -- Abbie Betinis
Stabat Mater (1 and 8)              -- Giovanni Pergolesi
Niska Banja                         -- Romani Dance (arr. Nick Page)
Ave Maria                           -- Javier Fajardo
As the Rain Hides the Stars         -- Elaine Hagenberg
Tres Cantos Nativos dos Indio Kraó
This Little Light of Mine           -- tranditional spiritual (arr. Moses Hogan)
I Love You / What a Wonderful World -- Craig Hella Johnson

Today's songs were performed by their concert choir and chamber singers, total ~28 voice, only ~2 boys. The last song was joined by ~12 boys, who will sing more tomorrow at Phinney Ridge neighborhood. They sang like angels. Absolutely wonderful. Wish the concert is longer. Unfortunately, not well advertised, very few people in audience.

This is my first time entering Plymouth United Church, despite of walking by it hundreds of times. Quite airy and nice inside. Rather large too.

Another update, I donated to LA Children's Chorus online with a note to support their tours.

2026.6.21. Puget Sound Concert Opera "Aleko" + "Mavra"; Hot Air Balloons in Seattle Center

6/21, Sunday. 3pm. Another free performance by Puget Sound Concert Opera. Mavra + Aleko.

I don't like Stravinsky's Mavra, except that I like the singer of Mavra. He's very funny. The story is comical and stupid (a boy poses as a maid to get into a girl's house), the music is not memorable.

I really like Rachmaninoff's Aleko. The story is more epic (death, exile, love). The music is melodic. I especially like the base singer of the father, Michael Drumheller. His voice is amazing, and his socks are eye popping. Rachmaninoff wrote this opera at age 19, still a student! What a genias.

I also really like this organization's artistic director Regina Thomas. She speaks of why she picked these works, and a little background of each. She also sang in Aleko in the chorus. During intermission, there was some snack and a drawing.

After dinner, we went to Seattle Center for Seattle Glow (2nd time, but I was oblivious to the first one). When we arrived ~8:15pm, too early. There's a basket to check out. the sponsors of today's spectable had their booths: Seattle Ballooning and Muckleshoot Casino who's handing out casino vouchers. A lot of people, no space to sit down on the lawn anymore. Drones are not allowed. There are a couple of "official drone operators". ~9pm, they started to blow up the balloons. One at a time. Total 7. We weren't able to get closer until much later, when they allow you to go next to the operators. It was very colorful, hot, and festival.

Next year: Sunday June 20th.

2026.6.6. Seattle International Dances Festival

This weekend, my peak-bagging friend O.K. wanted to climb a few peaks in the Teanaways with me to celebrate her birthday. Due to the windy and wet weather forecast for Saturday, she opted for a day hike on Sunday. When she arrived ~2pm, and me with 4 little cakes for her birthday, it turns out that her birthday was quite a few days ago. For entertainment without climbing, I got tickets to 2 events, one at 5pm, one at 8pm.

First we went to Seattle Center to see the Philipine Festival (part of an ongoing Festal weekend series at Seattle Center). I always like colorful costumes.

Saturday turned out to be a fairly nice day, at least in Seattle. Not much rain. 5pm, we walked to Art Love Salon for a talk on Beethoven's 9th Symphony by Kunal Taravade. I really enjoyed it. Taravade is not even in music industry. He uses images and videos to talk about music. Dissecting the aspiration and structure of the 4 movements of this symphony: breaking new grounds. Before the lecture, there was even a small reception. So, dinner was taken care of.

8pm Opening night of the 2026 Seattle International Dance Festival. I've heard of this festival, but today is the first time I attended a performance. This event is organized by Cyrus Khambatta, artistic director and founder of the 6 dancer company Khambatta Dance. This is a week-long event with 2 weekends. Many local small dance groups, and some come far away.
The first work tonight is by Khambatta Dance, titled "404 - Human not found". According to Cyrus, the speech used in the dance is generated by AI. An AI robot dances with human. She's later replaced by a better model.
Second work is a 2-dancer work presented by a Korean group, MYOWNMOVE, titled "Constructed Selves". A strange piece. These two acted like with broken limbs, one dancer uses the other's limb for his/her pose. Interesting.
The last piece is a short work combining the two companies in a new choreography.
I enjoyed these dances. Afterwards, 2 dancers and the choreographers of of each team sat on stage for an Q&A. Needed an interpreter.

2026.4.10. Seattle Symphony - CSF grantees showcase

4/10, Friday, 7:30pm. Seattle Symphony's Community Stages Fund showcases it's grant awardees at this community concert. They are:

  Faraji Blakeney (Yoga Behind Bars)  - poetry
  The Rhapsody Project                - music band
  Chamber Music Marysville            - string + wind + organ
  Sharon Nyree Williams               - story teller
  ARC Dance Company                   - ballet dance with a modern twist
  Puget Sound Co.                     - 9-voice ensemble
  Camp Jitterbug/Evergreen Rhythm     - swing dance
  Siddharth Siravara (Key to Change)  - teenage violin student
  Avi Spillers (Key to Change)        - another teenage voilin student
  Resounding Love Center for the Arts - large gospel choir
  Puckduction                         - burlesque with overweight women
  Speak With Purpose                  - youth speech

Out of these, my favorite is Puget Sound Co - a cappella voice group. They are very good. I also like Evergreen Rhythm which looks very fun, and not difficult. ARC Dance Company's take on Romeo and Juliet is quite good. The gospel choir is good too, with almost 100 voices, the sound is booming. The first poem is not bad. The rest are cappy. The burlesque show is eye-opening. So much bundles of flesh. It gives me nightmare (I need to stop eating sweets!). However, Kuto to these ladies' bravery. The host Yusef Seevers is very good: beaming voice, funny, engaging. Seattle Symphony accompanied some of the dances and speeches in the 2nd half of the show.

Overall, entertaining. However, free concerts have drawbacks: a dog barking, babies trying. The lady who sat behind us was eating some snack out of a loud plastic bag, and we moved after intermission.

After the concert, cookies and flavored water were stationed in the lobby.

2026.4.3. Astronaumic Art + Circus

4/3, Friday, UW. 2 events this evenings, both are enjoyable, and worth a few lines.

First, the opening of UW Plantetarium Arts' exhibition of Colectivo Arte Guenda - a group of female artists in Oaxaca (not all Mexicans). 22 artists were given an imprint of an SDSS targeting plate made in UW. They created their visions in the same 38"x38" frame, incorporating the holes on the plate. All very different and many are interesting. Only one embroidery. A couple of collages and photography. Most are paintings. Peace Kat gave some of us a tour of the pieces and talked briefly about each and its creater.

At 6pm, 3 people gave a speech: Yvonne Kennedy (Curator of this exhibition, Guenda), José Franco (UNAM), Peace Kat, and Sarah Tuttle (astrophysics UW). I very much enjoyed Sarah's talk, and learned about these plates. Kat is a good speaker. She emphasizes the systemic under-representation of women, and the goal of Guenda. At the break, before this panel, I got to checkout the actual plate and the robotic fiber positioner. Had to leave early, in the middle of this panel discussion.

Wolfed down some food I brought, and practically ran to Meany Theater for the 8pm show Passengers that I watched 2.5 years ago, by 7 Fingers, a Quebec circus group. Still quite enjoyable.

2026.3.20. Firebird at PNB

3/20, Friday.

• Alejandro Cerrudo -- Little mortal jump
• Ulysses Dove -- Red Angels
• Kent Stowell -- Firebird

I had too high of an expectation for Firebird, and it fell short. The last grand scene of palace and the new couple look nice with the costums, but no much dancing. The set uses many overhanging painted cardboards. A few arches. Looks nice enough, quite efficient, but not sure why the hype.

Today's firebird is Ashton Edwards, a 5'-short non-binary boy, who danced en pointe in a female role. He/she is very good, as graceful as a girl, but have strength. Kudo to PNB that allows such a young artist to flourish.

Out of the 3 works today, I liked "Little mortal jump" the most. It's quite different, with some jerky movements.

2026.3.19. Mary Jane - Seattle Rep

3/19, 7:30pm preview of Mary Jane, by Amy Herzog. This is an one-act play on a single mother battling with the health care system for her cronically ill toddler with cerebral palsy. Quite sad. Ends almost abruptly. Could be longer, because it touches many aspects, but none deep: religion, health care, juggling with work, taking care of a sick child, nursing, teaching, privacy. Nice stage set:2 sets (a home scene and a hospital scene) on a rotating base.

2026.3.15. The Consul - Puget Sound Concert Opera

3/15, Sunday, 3pm. Puget Sound Concert Opera's 2nd performance this weekend of The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti (both music and libretto).

The plot is sad. A dissident escapes towards the frontier, leaving wife, baby and mom, who are now monitored by the secret police. The wife goes to the consolate day after day trying to get a visa to join her husband. The secretary of the consul is a heartless burreaucrat who demands numerous documents from all applicants. In the end, baby, mom, wife all die, husband captured.

I liked the songs about "tomorrow, tomorrow", and "papers, papers". Some words are clever. Overall I enjoyed it. A pleasant surprise is that they had laid out some food during the intermission.

This is the first time I ever visited Langston Hughes performance center.

2026.2.20. Lunar New Year community concert at Seattle Steinway Gallery

2/20, Friday. A Lunar New Year Concert. Every piece is played by different musicians.

彩雲追月 Silver Clouds Chase the Moon  -- Victoria
Li Huanzhi, Spring Festival Overture -- Piano: Melody, Violin: John Shieh
Cecile Chaminade, Caprice Impromptu Op153 - Jiayi

George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue   -- Oliver
Philip Glass: Etudes: No. 6         -- Jess
越人歌 The song of Yue Boatman       -- Finnie and Aimee
Butterfly lovers concerto 1st mvt : Adagio cantabile -- Annie and Justin

Unfortunately I had to leave at intermission. I quite enjoyed the first half.

2026.2.14. Iris Unveiled - Seattle Symphony

2/14, Saturday. Xian introduces Iris Unveiled. It's an interesting, not a new composition.

Qigang Chen          Iris Dévoilée (Iris Unveiled)
Dmitri Shostakovich  Symphony No. 5

I like big orchestra. This is it. 5 people on percussion! 10 cellos, 8 basses. For Iris Unveiled, other than the Peking Opera singer Meng Meng, 2 supranos (Mei Gui Zhang and Tess Altiveros), Yang Jin on pipa, Cathy Yang on Erhu and banhu, Lucina Yue on guzheng. It's interesting to hear the difference between Peking Opera's voice and classical suprano's voice. Big sound. Glad to watch and listen. However, neither these 2 works I'd revisit.

The preconcert lecture today was advertised at 90 minutes before curtain. But the auditorium was closed and had to wait for the usual lecture 60 min prior. What a screw-up. In the lobby, there was a screen playing videos on Peking Opera. Today's lecture is on female characters in Peking Opera, by Jeremy Jolley of the education side of the symphony and Shuang-Chiu Wang, of Hwa Sheng Chinese Opera Club (華聲社）. She's also a professor at Bellevue College. She articulates and explains well. I enjoyed it.

While we were inside the auditorium for the lecture, Seattle Chinese Orchestra ensemble played in the lobby. Not sure what we missed. It was a nice performance using traditional Chinese instruments, I especially liked the lady on Er Hu. She's so good.

2026.1.31. Ideation with Abigail Platters + The Wild Party - a musical

1/31, Saturday. The 3rd art workshop this week at Art Love Salon. Abrigail Platters prepared a presentation. However, it took half an hour to get her laptop probably projected to this large display. She recommended a few books on illustration. Commented on a solo exhibition of hers and how she developed her paintings.

Our first excercise is come up with 25 compositions, 1 minute each. So fast, that our brains haven't get to the criticising stage. Some of those minutes, she would have suggestions: imaging you are view from low, draw in Van Gogh's style, then Picasso's style, stormy weather, ...

2nd excercise is mark 4 favorite out of these 25, and discuss with her. Then we pick one, and make more compositions using this idea. I picked the camp fire with a hiker. Moved the subject from center to lower left, and then, move the fire out way out, added a mug for the hiker. She also recommended looking at Morgan Weistling's painting with lights. If I were to elaborate this painting, will be adding fireflies and maybe glowing mushrooms as fire ember. Maybe a bit of silouette to hint the distant mountains.

The Wild Party is a musical by Andrew Lippa (both lyrics and music, and I like both, what a talent!). The plot is simple, a estranged couple throws a party. Guests arrive, they flirt. Jealousy. Finally a gun fired. It's in the 20s, all jazz and big bang swing - my favorite.

No stage, excellent acting, good singing and fun orchestra. I very much enjoyed it. I especially like An Old-Fashioned Love Story by Madelaine the lesbian. Super funny, great acting. This is my first time attending Sound Theatre Company. I may go to their shows in the future, if they play in a theatre that I can walk to.

2026.1.26. Art from Ashes - Music of Rememberance

1/26, Monday. Music Of Rememberance performed at the recital hall of Benaroya, in commenmeration of the liberation of Auschwitz or the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (1/27). Mina Miller, founder of MOR, introduced the project, and talked briefly about the Holocaust, and before each piece of today's program. 6 million Jews, 300k disabled, 200k Romas, many thousand of gay men. At the writing of this blog, I found that Germany criminalized homosexuality until the 80s. Also, no mention of 5-6 million Soviet POWs + civilians were systematically killed during WWII.

• Humoresque, Op. 101, no 7, Anton Dvorak
  Mikhail Shmidt on violin (my favorite in Seattle Symphony), Christina Valdes on piano
• Anthem of the Republic of Shkid, Karel Hasler
  The NW Boychoir
• Vedem, music by Lori Laitman, libretto by David Mason, commissioned by MOR
  Vedem is a secret magazine in the Terezin camp of teenage boys
  Martin Bakari as tenor, Vanessa Isiguen as soprano, The NW Boychoir.

I very much enjoyed the first 2 short pieces, and liked the speaker. The new work Vedem is just okay, both the lyrics and the music. The message is loud and clear: remember us, we are just like you. Very important. We shouldn't forget the atrocity we commited and are able to commit.

2026.1.25. Here, there are the blueberries - a play

1/25, Sunday. A preview of Here, There are Blueberries at Seattle Rep. A very powerful play. Hightly recommend it.

The plot: an anonymous donor sent in a photo album of SS officers and workers in the Auschwitz Camp to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The curators debated whether and how to exhibit these photos. Seemingly innocent young girls at a field trip eating blueberries, doctors, construction laborers, farmers, children of the SS officers, ... All normal people doing his/her job, keeping the killing machine running. It questions our humanity. Will I be the same? In order to keep my livelihood, not to lose my job, will I refuse to see the big picture? This Karl Höcker album is real.

No intermission. Simple stage set, but use a lot of projections. I was 2 minutes late, and wasn't let in until maybe 10 minute passed. The house was 80-90% full tonight. At the lobby, Museum of Holocaust had a table of some reproduction of their exhibits. Some reproduction of the photos mentioned in the play are also displayed in the lobby.

2026.1.2. Heart Sellers at Seattle Rep

1/2, Friday. First show of The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh at Seattle Rep. Thanksgiving afternoon. 2 immigrants, newly acquainted, with broken English, got together to make a turkey meal, while their husbands are at work on this new holiday. Good acting, very warm, a little sad, some funny moments too.

The title comes from one analogy of Luna: when she went through the immigration window, she handed over her heart in exchange of the permission of entry.

2025.12.13. Seattle Men's Chorus' Christmas concert

12/13, Saturday, 1pm. Almost a tradition, I go to Seattle Men's Chorus' Christmas concert. It's always fun. This year, it's titled Holly Jolly Jingle. 2 percussion, 2 on keyboard, 1 base (a lady).

Funny costumes: Mexican hats, sunflowers, holiday color, awkward dance. Their rendition of nutcracker suite is very funny.

During intermission, again, you can take photos with the singers. Raffle time. The grand prize is a Suburu.

2025.12.13. Life on the moon - a play

12/13, Friday, 8pm. Baker Theater Workshop stages Life On The Moon at ReAct Theatre.

I didn't know the story, and thought it was about astronauts. Surprised to find that it's a social commetory. I liked it. Good acting. A little sad. A family of 4 celebrating Christmas together, son is discharged from military, daughter has autism.

It's a long walk from home. On the way back, saw many lights on Occidental Square. Looks quite pretty.

2025.12.3+5 Concert Opera La Callas

12/3, Wednesday, 3pm. Puget Sound Concert Opera's new production La Callas. Today, artistic director Regina Thomas chatted with composer Clint Borzoni and librettist Elizabeth Coppinger. It gave me a glimpse how an opera is made: from an idea to a collaboration. They didn't know each other. This is Borzoni's 6th opera, despite of his age. He emphasizes his traditional style and character's emotion. Coppinger is a wealthy opera patron, with no music training. After taking a libreto class at Seattle Opera, she started writing this one, her first ever. Through introduction, they started this collaboration trial with just one aria. It turns out that she didn't like it. After a length explanation of her ideas, Borzoni rewrote that aria to the satisfaction of both. Thus the collaboration continues. After this talk, I was keen on listening to this result. She also talked about how she structure the story line, and why she wanted to pen the affair of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis in opera.

Thomas also pointed out that concert format of opera is what she can produce on a small budget, which needs a smaller venue, and can try new works. She also announced the next 2 performances in the plan for 2026. I booked both when I got home.

Unexpectedly, (especially that this event was at 3pm), there was a nice reception when I arrived, including beer and wine. A pleasant surprise. Not too many people came for this event though. I've been to this venue a few times before (before the monthly art walks). It used to be mostly empty. Now, all the walls are adorned with paintings for sale. Quite nice.

12/5, 7pm the performance the "birthday gala" to celebrate Callas (born in December). Now I expected food, and there was almost none. But I enjoyed the concert.

The first half is the first act of La Callas, accompanied by a piano. Somehow I didn't care for this opera, neither libreto, nor music. It was okay. None of the arias is melodic enough to be memorable. I'm quite disappointed. Now, I'm debating whether to go to the 2 shows of Puget Sound Concert Opera in 2026.

I very much enjoyed the 2nd half of today's show. The actors sang the arias that Callas sung before, with Thomas pointing out when and where That's quite interesting, actually illustrated how talented Callas was. These are well known tunes, some are complex (one quartet and one sextet) that showing off the capabilities of our singers. They are quite good. Accompanied by piano, flute, violin and cello. No supertitle for this half.

• Vissi d'Arte -- Tosca
• Mira, O Norma -- Norma
• Libiamo -- La Traviata
• Chi mi frena in tal momento -- Lucia de Lammermoor
• Bella figlia del'amore -- Rigoletto
• Dei tuoi figli -- Medea
• My Child -- La Callas (act 2)
• O mio babbino caro -- Gianni Schicchi
• L'amour est un oiseau -- Carmen

During the intermission, there were some mediocre crackers. At the end, Proseco and cup cakes, red rose petals scattered on the table. Celebratory.

Almost full today. Both the composer and the libretist were in attendance.

2025.11.14. PNB: The Upper Room

Pacific Northwest Ballet's In the Upper Room features 3 modern pieces.

• Christopher D’Ariano & Amanda Morgan Aftertime (world premier: a couple watching robots dancing).
• Dani Rowe's The Window (a woman watched her neighbors)
• Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room (fast pace)

I especially like the first one. The costums of the robots are fun, their movements are interesting. Quite enjoyable.