Fred Chu, Everett Symphony make beautiful music

The year was 1978. The Cultural Revolution was over and the Chinese government released its iron grip on the country's cultural throat, allowing Western influences to flow more freely.

Fred Chu had just finished the early shift at the fabric factory and rushed home to get his violin. It was 3 p.m. and he had no time to change for the 4 p.m. audition.

Still wearing his rain boots and work clothes and smelling like dye and acid, Chu played two Paginini pieces for the judges and won the only opening for a seat with the Central Opera of China, beating out more than a hundred other players.

Chu's success is even more extraordinary because he had only been able to take lessons sporadically once every three or four months during the Cultural Revolution because good teachers had been sent away to the labor camps or feared arrest.

The story is also extraordinary because Chu was only 22 at the time.

"Those four judges couldn't believe what they heard and what they saw: a factory man playing Paginini," Chu said, still laughing at the memory. "There's just one opening and then my life forever changed.

"It was my dream to be able to play the violin professionally and try to escape from the factory. It was a huge dream come true," Chu said.

This extraordinary man went on to become the concertmaster -- orchestra leader who plays first violin -- of several orchestras, performing with violin greats such as Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell along the way.

Chu is currently the concertmaster of the Everett Symphony. He will be the featured musician tonight during the symphony's final concert of the season, "The Romantic and the Bohemian."

Chu will be featured during Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 and the Concerto for Violin by Brahms.

There's no question that these are passionate pieces because those have always been Chu's favorite.

"Ninety percent of the songs I chose are the ones with passion. That's what I live for," said Chu, following a lesson with one of his students. "I'm a passionate person."

In 2001, that passion caught the attention of Everett Symphony conductor Paul-Elliott Cobbs, who saw Chu play at a music festival in Spain.

Everett Symphony musicians have said Cobbs knew immediately that he had found the orchestra's concertmaster, but he showed respect for the orchestra by having Chu audition for a committee comprised of all the principals. Chu knocked the socks off of everyone and got the job.

Chu is often asked: Why stay with Everett?

He has been offered many other full-time orchestra opportunities but the violinist says he's content to stay here as long as he remains happy. He doesn't even mind commuting from Vancouver, B.C., where his wife and 9-year-old daughter live.

"Besides, the scenery is good. I look at the cows, and the mountains are beautiful," Chu said.

Also, Chu said, if he became a full-time musician at another symphony, he would have to give up teaching, something he is as passionate about as the music he plays.

"Part of my life is teaching. I don't want to be simply playing," Chu said. "I always think back on my childhood and how difficult it was to get the right education, the right training.

"I want to devote my life to helping those who really have musical talent," Chu said. "And give them all I got, just as my teachers did for me when I was a kid."



Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424,

goffredo@heraldnet.com.