Oakland School of the Arts theater student Tyler Thompson has not only been acclaimed for his performances singing Chinese opera in the Bay area, his performances in the Purple Silk Music Education program's Great Wall Youth Orchestra and Chorus have made him the subject of an Associated Press article that is being published in The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, and papers and news web sites around the world.

Tyler learned how to sing in Chinese a decade ago when he was a kindergartner in Chew’s music class at Oakland’s Lincoln Elementary School, where about 90 percent of students are Asian. He soon joined the Purple Silk music program, where students sing Chinese songs and play Chinese instruments, such as a violin called an erhu, a lute known as a pipa, and a bamboo flute called a dizi.

“I really took a liking to him and thought he had quite a large range,” Chew told the AP. “He hears pitch very well, and his pronunciation of Chinese characters is very accurate.”

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