Lake Forest Park

Shoreline – Lake Forest Park Magical Strings Concert for the Holidays!

On Sunday, November 29th the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council presents Magical Strings Celtic Yuletide Concert. Now in it’s 31st year, Magical Strings will be performing at the Shorecrest Performing Arts Center at 3 p.m.  As many families and fans in the community have made this a holiday tradition, tickets will go fast. 

Phil and Pam Boulding, the center of this musical whirl of Holiday sparkle, are magical at holiday time. 

The Shoreline-Lake Forest Park concert is the first of their holiday series (which goes from Portland to Mount Vernon) and is, according to Phil, “always exciting, the energy is up and high because it’s the first show of the season.”  This year is specially special…Brittany Boulding, one of their five children, has returned from NYC where she lived for years performing with major orchastras.  It’s her first year back and she is busy as she’s the Concertmistress of the Bellevue Philharmonic, as well as playing with the Seattle Symphony.  She will appear with the Magical Strings group and play a special solo as well as fiddling along with the Celtic music and jigs!  Her brother Brenin, a notable cello player, will also join the group and since his wife is Sara Raney of the Raney Irish Dancers, there has for some years been a cross link and the dancers will be performing at the concert.  More wonderful family, grandaughter Rowen, now 9, is an award winning Irish Dancer (The Tara Acadamy of Irish Dance is run by Sara Raney and her sisters) and will perform a solo. 

Also appearing will be Irish Flute Player Hanz Areki as a guest performer (said to be the “quintessential world music musician”), lyrical juggler Thomas Arthur, vocalists Mark and Colleen Raney, and other special guests.  Phil explained to me that he and Pam compose a lot of their own original music, and have just returned from a spectacular trip to Ireland which inspired some of this year’s program.  I am personally looking forward to a special arrangement for a violin and cello duo that sounds amazing!

Practically a household word in the Northwest, Magical Strings Ensemble enthralls with a tight woven blend of dancing hammers and pulsating strings.   The distinctive music created by the harmonious partnership of Phil and Pam is described in the Washington Post as “warm, graceful and sonically gorgeous.”  Centered around a tight-knit blending of hammered dulcimers and Celtic harps, the performance will be enhanced by pennywhistles, valiha (Malagasy harp), concertina and song  and storytelling.  During the past 25 years Magical Strings has always drawn a great and loyal following all over the world, captivated by sparkling arrangements of Celtic music and their original joyful compositions, intertwining Celtic roots with classical and World Music influences

Could there be more?  Yes, just don’t miss it!  Please take a look at their Magical Strings website for further details  and for other concerts they will be playing for this series in the Holiday Season!  And don’t forget to check out the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council website (and maybe bookmark it?) for gallery news and other events of the season.

For an interesting taste of a Hanz Araki balad, try http://popup.lala.com/popup/2810527689712221426.

Lake Forest Park

Intentional Living Seminar lights up Lake Forest Park

Tuesday evening, as part of the “Lighten the Load and Light Up the Future” project in Lake Forest Park, Piper Lauri Salogga of Natural Balance (Seattle), spoke to a group on “Peace and Vitality, Living Intentionally in Your Home.”

The lecture was supposed to go from 7 to 8:30, but at 9:30 participants were still eagerly questioning Piper, whose sparkling intensity won her instant fans.  At that moment, for everyone in the room, the most important thing was to understand how our arrangement and choices in our homes are affecting our moods, energy, ability to move forward in life, in fact. The school custodian, however, was begging us to leave so he could close up, and a last few eager questioners gathered around Piper in the dark chilly parking lot, unwilling to let her go.

Explaining that “our surroundings have a powerful effect on us” Piper went on to teach us some of the basics of feng shui, including the bagua, a directional map that you can place over your home to find out which areas are connected strongly with various aspects of your life.  The ancient chinese energy management system includes the symbols of wood, metal, water, fire and air which need to be in balance for joyful and purposeful living.  If you find yourself in a career predicament, check the area of your house which strongly influences career, and you will, according to feng shui teaching, find that there is some rearranging to be done!  Color, type of material, symbols, all can have a negative or positive affect on how things are going in that area.

Natural Balance, Piper’s business which addresses design and feng shui concerns in home and office, has been in existance for 11 years, although she has been working in the field longer.  A child of an architect and a landscape architect, Piper has been living in the world of design her entire life.  Her broad understanding of the principals of feng shui, which she calls the “magic door” to realizing your intentions in the world, was clear and inspiring.  We learned that feng shui is not about thinking about it (or not only) but about taking action, in the form of a focus point, symbol, or element you put into your environment to bring a certainn desired focus into your life.  By doing so you’re “putting it out there” and there is story after story about how the universe responds to focused intention.

Some interesting and even funny stories came out of the evening from participants as well, including how when your fish keep dying it’s a good idea to move them… but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  For those who would like to see the outline of the class please go to “homework” on Light Up the Future, our project website. 

And if you’re in Seattle (or Lake Forest Park!), you might want to attend Piper and Sara’s Sit and Sip event on 11/21, a home accessories exchange.  There are only 100 seats available so make your reservations qucikly!  The event takes place in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood center, a place I love to go for it’s atmosphere of Seattle history, as it’s an old three brick school with wooden floors and high ceilings!

Some classes Piper teaches (from her website)

• Designing Your Perfect Retreat, One Room at a Time (Perfect Retreat Party)
• OfficeShui^TM , practical powerful tips to create an inspiring and productive workspace
• Your Perfect Retreat groups
• Clearing the clutter, one corner at a time
• 7 Steps to a harmonious environment (Intro to feng shui)
• Intro to feng shui for architects and designers
• Numerology, the story of your life

Most of the classes go for 2 hours with time for Q & A… but if last night is anything to judge by, they are going to go quite a lot longer than that if the participants have their way.

Thank you, Piper Lauri Salogga, for an inspiring and really useful evening.

(for more information on our school fundraiser, please go to www.lightupthefuture.org)

Lake Forest Park

Two Trading Tigers in Lake Forest Park

Consignees Of Fine Items, Furniture And Fun Finds, New And Gently Used Fashions