Na Young Kwon

Pride in public schools

"Not many people know about ‘ikebana,’" said Megumi Schacher as I enter her home studio in the verdant Brier neighborhood. One of her two cats languishes in a chair near an arrangement of tall...

Little Italy. Chinatown. Japantown. These ethnic enclaves — communities within larger American cities — were the centers of immigrant life for many newcomers. Seattle’s International District included what was known as Nihonmachi or "Japantown",...

“The Elements Within” exhibit at Mithun — running until June 21 — features a collaborative show of artisanal slab furniture and calligraphic wall hangings. Calligrapher and choreographer Yoko Murao was invited to include her...

The Pacific Northwest ensemble, Gamelan Pacifica will feature music of Central Java in its concert on April 9 in PONCHO Theatre, Cornish College of the Arts. Guest performers include Javanese musicians Ki Midiyanto, currently a Lecturer in Gamelan at the University of California, Berkeley, and Heri Purwanto. While Indonesian gamelan music is widely known as a rich percussion orchestra, the program centers on Gamelan Gadhon, a genre more resembling chamber music and utilizing fewer instruments. “Soft-style” instruments known as panerusan—rebab (bowed fiddle), suling (bamboo flute), gender (metallophones), gambang (wooden-keyed xylophone), siter (plucked-string zither), gong, and drums—comprise the Gadhon instrumentation in addition to vocal soloists (psindhen) and chorus (gerong). Jarrad Powell, a composer and founder of the ensemble, describes the program’s pieces as “represent[ing] a variety of styles in a variety of different modes and moods. Gadhon style is not usually used for wayang or dance. It is generally chamber music and is most frequently heard alone.”

From Shenyang to Seattle: The Art of Bow Making

Seattle Modern Orchestra brings new life to the classical music scene.

Paul Kikuchi, a Seattle-based percussionist, composer, instrument builder and Feldenkrais practitioner, will be releasing the album “Flight Patterns: Open Graves with Stuart Dempster” this November as a CD and limited edition LP. The album...

When we think back on the people who influenced our lives, we often remember our teachers. These individuals, perhaps in the school classroom or even outside in the “classroom” of daily living, endure as...

When we think back on the people who influenced our lives, we often remember our teachers. These individuals, perhaps in the school classroom or even outside in the “classroom” of daily living, endure as...