Song Trees co-founder, a world renowned violinist, got her start in North Spokane

Music, community and a Spokane homecoming will culminate in the Multigenerational Concert and Singalong at Shadle Park Public Library on Sunday.

Chika Robertson is an acclaimed violinist with a doctorate in violin performance practice and pedagogy. She has performed with top orchestras around the world, has recorded with musicians like Ella Fitzgerald and is a professor at the elite Royal Academy of Music in London, where she resides.

But long before classical music was taking Robertson to unimaginable heights, she was growing up on the North Side of Spokane near Shadle Park High School. At just 6 years old, while attending Garland Elementary School (now MAP High School), the Spokane Symphony visited.

“I came home and I wanted to play an instrument; now that’s powerful,” Robertson said. “I self-scripted from that time, ‘OK I’m going to be a musician, I’m going to play in an orchestra,’ it was that striking to me.”

Her next-door neighbor happened to be a violin teacher who one day looked over the fence and told Robertson’s mother, “that girl is going to be a violin player.”

“Now, whether she just wanted some extra supplementary income, I don’t know,” Robertson said with a laugh. “I think she spotted my personality.”

While attending Shadle, Robertson was a member of the All-State Orchestra under music director John Harris Jr. She was a hostess at Expo ’74’s Japanese Pavilion. And her first job was with the Spokane Public Library’s music department. She attended Washington State University before going on to prestigious schools, such as Julliard.

Robertson still credits Spokane and the people of the Lilac City for her success.

“There’s no other place quite like Spokane, is there?” Robertson said. “It’s all down to the fact that the mentorship training I got here in Spokane was phenomenal.”

One of Robertson’s most meaningful accolades comes from the nonprofit initiatives of Music Mind Spirit Trust, for which she is co-founder and director of the Song Trees program alongside her husband and music director Mark Ross Clark.

Song Trees works with musicians and orchestras around the world to unite communities through musical healing and nature. One of their primary focuses is dementia and music’s ability to evoke memories, which led to a partnership with the Spokane Symphony and the founding of their Dementia Program that takes symphony musicians specifically trained to perform in care homes.

They have also worked with multiple medical science programs in order to help further understand how exactly music has this powerful impact on the human mind.

“We’ve found that these songs unlock all the memories amongst all the generations,” Robertson said. “Even the people with dementia will start singing.”

Now, in partnership with Spokane Public Library and the Spokane Symphony, Song Trees is inviting all generations to a singalong concert at Shadle Park Library featuring a wide array of well-known classics from multiple decades.

The event will also feature an “instrument petting zoo,” in which Spokane Symphony members will guide attendees who want to try out an assortment of instruments, as well as a tree planting ceremony in collaboration with the Susie Forest Project. Levi Horn will lead the interactive Native blessing ceremony with singing and drumming by Salish school children.

“People can bring their grandparents, their parents, their children, all coming together to bond through music,” said Alina Murcar, Spokane Public Library marketing and communications manager.

Shadle Park Library and the Spokane Symphony surveyed over 150 patrons with questions like, “What is a song in your childhood that meant a lot to you?” and “What memories does it evoke?”

Robertson, Clark and Jason Moody, Spokane Symphony director of education and community engagement, analyzed the results and selected eight songs to perform using criteria such as familiarity and “singability.”

“We’ve designed it so if people think they can’t sing, they’ll be singing just because they’ll want to, and they’ll know the stuff enough,” Robertson said. “All these intergenerational events, the big thing about them is that they are bonding together through music and the sense of community spirit that comes about and knowing that these songs came from Spokanites.

“And I’m very proud to be a Spokanite.”