ABBA

She is a Chinese violinist and private teacher brought up during the Cultural Revolution who began to play the paino when she was five and the violin when she was eight. She appeared with the Peking Opera Company when she was twelve.

She took her studies at the Shanghai and Shenyang Conservatory and won second place at the National Youth Violin Competition of China and third at the San Diego Youth Music Competition.

She moved to the United States to take further studies at the University of Miami and after she started on her career as a professional musician she became a member of the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and was an alternate violinist for the Philadelphia Orchestra when it was under the conductorship of Ricardo Muti.

She moved to Florida in 1988 and held the position of Assistant Concertmaster with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra for two years until their final performance in 2003 where she was promoted to perform the part of Concertmaster. She had been a member of the orchestra for 11 years. She is currently a member of the Florida Atlantic University Chamber Soloists.

As a soloist or chamber member she has also performed as concertmaster with the Miami Chamber Symphony, Associate Concertmaster with the Florida Grand Opera and also with the Delray String Quartet and Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival. In 1997 she was one of the many Chinese musicians that played at the Reunification Ceremony of Hong Kong.

No stranger to the recording studio she has appeared on albums in the classical and pop genres that include This Is Where I Came In by Bee Gees, Portrait of the Blues by Bobby “Blue” Bland, Illuminations by Chamber Music Palm Beach, Unwrapped by Gloria Estefan, Stay Close to Home by Dorothy Moore, The Big Bang by Busta Rhymes, Gift by Jon Secada, I Know It’s Wrong…But I Just Can’t Do Right by Johnnie Taylor and Gloria! Gloria! with Benita Valenta, The Philadelphia Singers & The Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia among many others.

As one of the Delray String Quartet she is on the faculty for the University of Miami’s Young Musicians’ Summer Camp in 2010.

The Philadelphia Singers recordings

Adeste Fidelis (John Francis Wade)

RCA 6559-2-RC (Gloria! Gloria!)

Soprano – Benita Valente

Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia

Conductor – Michael Korn

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