Our April 30th Art for a Cause show at the Philippine Consulate office began with a trailer for the documentary of when Project Philippines first traveled in 2008. It was a beautiful way to set the stage for the following 90-minute show. It can be viewed here:
http://youtu.be/pIsDL4U7-hc. This was followed by a beautiful duet by Kendra Isobel Samson and Chelsea Ainsworth. During their duet, as well as between each act of the show, "dialogues" of each of the Project Philippines members played over the loudspeakers, explaining much of the team's viewpoint on teaching, the arts, and the importance of outreach.
Brian Gnojek and Midori Samson performed three short, contrating pieces for clarinet and bassoon starting with the whimsical first movement of the duo Sonata by Francis Poulenc. Following this was "Blending Music", written for and dedicated to Project Philippines 2012 by Juilliard composer
Molly Joyce. For a finale, Brian and Midori performed "Vals Venezolano", a latin waltz by clarinetist and composer Paquito D'Rivera, arranged by Mr. Gnojek.
The audience had the pleasure of seeing violinist
Charles Yang perform two brilliant works, the first a thrilling, caprice-like piece titled "Motion" by Mr. Yang himself, followed by Mr. Yang's own arrangement of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody for solo violin.
The fourth act of the performance was the dance "In a box", Choreographed by
Manuel Vignoulle, performed by himself and Manon Parent. The audience was truly mesmerized by this powerful piece.
Leonides and Ritsuko Arpon performed a tango, "Recuerdo", choreographed by Dardo Galletto, utilizing the entire Consulate stage, and truly showing off their dance skills which Leo intends to share with the students in the Philippines!
Evan Shinners brought the house down with performances of Bach from his "Bach-upy America" initiative. Colorful rings and American flag shirts abounded.
The final performance before intermission was by Kyle Netzeband (assisted by the other members of the team), assembling his famous "Fly in Clouds" piece: a collection of oil pastel paintings that create a
large Filipino flag. The paintings are based on photos from the previous
educational outreach trip to the Philippines, and can be seen on our Kickstarter page at
http://tinyurl.com/pp2012kickstarter.
The second half of the night's performance consisted of a screening of a 30-minute documentary on Project Philippines 2008, by videographer Gianina Ferreyra (she was part of the 2008 team) who is founder of
Igigi Studios. Igigi Studios is working on a full-length documentary to
submit to film festivals. This documentary really got across what the 2008 team was able to accomplish, and inspired both the audience and the team about our goals for 2012.
Overall, it was an amazing night of talented people, and a wonderful, generous audience. Thank you to everyone who performed, and a SPECIAL thanks to those who attended and donated to our cause! That night brought us much closer to our goal.