By Andrew Hamlin
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Coordinating a program combining traditional Korean dance, song, and culture seems like a heavy load. But for Sinae Cheh, it’s all in the family.
Cheh’s parents co-founded the Morning Star Korean Cultural Center in Lynnwood, back in 1985. But she took over operations awhile back, and she’s masterminded the Center’s new program, “Narae 2025: Bi Sang—Together We Soar,” coming to Benaroya Hall on Nov. 30.
The Morning Star Center began, Cheh explained, “with a simple, powerful mission: to share Korean dance and music with our community. My father, a pastor and visionary, believed deeply in the importance of cultural exchange as a form of service—bridging worlds, nurturing understanding, and sharing faith through the arts.”
“My mother brought the artistic gift and devotion that gave that vision life. Together, they laid the foundation for a center that has grown from humble classes into a vibrant cultural institution. Their partnership—one rooted in faith, creativity, and community—continues to inspire everything we do.”
Over the years, Morning Star has grown from a community-rooted organization into a broader cultural institution by expanding programming, partnerships, and audiences.
Said Cheh, “Key changes include broadening performance offerings, developing large-scale collaborative productions, deepening educational and outreach work, and partnering with regional and global arts organizations and community groups. Morning Star has traveled all over the United States and to over 30 countries worldwide as cultural ambassadors.”
As for the current program, “narae” translates to “wings” in Korean, while “bi sang” conveys the idea of rising and soaring together. The final program, combining dance with song, “is conceived as an artistic statement about collective uplift: a program that celebrates cultural resilience, intergenerational aspiration, and the creative possibilities that emerge when communities and artists take flight together.
“The name feels fitting as we mark Morning Star’s 40th anniversary and join the community in commemorating the 80th anniversary of Korean Liberation, the 75th anniversary of the Korean War, and 122 years of Korean immigration to the United States. In the lobby, we are also presenting a 75th Korean War Anniversary DMZ photo exhibit, offering visitors a reflective visual context that complements the evening’s performances.”
This performance also finds the Center drawing support from the Greater Seattle Korean Association and the Korean American Day Celebration Foundation. These organizations “partnered with Morning Star to co-sponsor program activities (allowing the show to be free for the audience), strengthen community outreach, and broaden participation. Their involvement helped ensure broader civic engagement, community representation, and unity around the project.”
Choral Arts Northwest, also featured in the program, specialize in vocal ensemble pieces.
“The selections presented are excerpts from a longer work we collaborated on in 2021 by Korean composer Hyo-Won Woo. That original program wove Morning Star’s cultural perspective with Choral Arts Northwest’s choral mastery, producing an exchange that was both artistically beautiful and deeply inspiring.”
Cheh did not list out all of the guest stars found in the new show, but she did name Anthony Kim, a young Korean American cellist born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Switzerland.
“Each guest artist contributes a distinct voice that amplifies the work’s cross-cultural conversation and raises the program’s artistic profile.”
Future plans for Morning Star, Cheh explained, involve more collaborative productions to create more ambitious works; community-engaged projects, to ensure artistry grows from community needs and stories; and elaborate plans to build a community center for the arts, housing rehearsal and teaching studios, plus offices for community programs.
“Morning Star is both a guardian of cultural memory and an engine for contemporary artistic conversation,” she concluded. The new show “is emblematic of that duality; it lifts tradition into the present while building new bridges across communities and disciplines. This production is designed to be both a poignant communal ceremony and a bold artistic statement.
“Narae 2025: Bi Sang—Together We Soar” plays Nov. 30 at Benaroya Hall.
For showtime, and more information, visit https://www.seattlesymphony.org/en/benaroyahall/bh-calendar/2025-2026/26-narae-bi-sang.