Musicians' Perspective: Week 3, Day 7

Today was another busy day in Manila. We started the day at the Ayala Museum, where the dancers would later perform. The museum is gorgeous, and had a lot of great exhibits. The first one we saw was "Gold of Ancestors: Pre-Colonial Treasures in the Philippines" We had never seen so much gold in one place, from early pieces hammered out of gold, to some beautifully ornate crowns and necklaces. Next was an exhibit displaying 18th- and 19th-Century embroidered Philippine clothing. We finished our short time there by looking at the Diorama Experience, a floor containing over sixty dioramas depicting the history of the Philippines from 50,000 B.C. to the present. We were struck by what a violent history the Philippines has had, continuously being occupied by China, Spain, the British, the Japanese, and the United States. The dioramas were incredible, painted and carved with great detail.

After getting to see the exhibits, the dancers gave a performance in the lobby of the museum. Several families that were visiting the museum had wandered over to check it out. Chelsea and Kendra spoke about Project Philippines and each of us introduced ourselves as members of the team. Then, we showed an excerpt of the film about Project Philippines 2008. The members were very attentive as the dancers performed and had questions about the project at the end. We later found out that the man who helped record the music for the 2008 documentary was in the audience to show his continued support for the team!

We had just enough time to go across the street to The Landmark, another shopping mall that had very reasonably-priced clothes. We had left our dress clothes at PHSA and needed something to wear to the PPO concerts. We each got some shoes, and Brian got a "barong," a traditional dress shirt often worn by Filipino men. Perhaps he was inspired by their visit to the museum.

The ballet that Ballet Philippines did was "Crisostomo Ibarra," based on the novel Noli Me Tángere by Jose Rizal. It was a little hard to understand, since all of the text they projected was in Tagalog, but Midori and I really loved the dancing and the music was wonderful, haunting yet beautiful. The music was written by a living Filipino composer, and it happened to be a chamber piece for clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello and piano! After that, we caught Madame Butterfly, which was quite a production with very talented singers.

Outside of CCP at night.

Musicians' Perspective: Week 3, Day 6

We returned to Manila today alongside the students at PHSA on their buses. Fridays are the days they go home, or to host family houses for the weekend, and also take private lessons. We had a good time talking to some of the students, specifically a violinist (and composer, as we would later discover), Art. The dancers went straight to the Cultural Center of the Philippines to teach more classes, and Midori and Brian took advantage of the time off to visit the Greenbelt Mall, a large mall that basically consisted of five interconnected sections, some outdoor. Each section seemed to have its own theme, one was for appliances, one was more international stores, one was for high-end boutiques, etc. The mall also houses the Ayala Museum where we will be going tomorrow.

Cultural Center of the Philippines

After spending a little over an hour there, we took a taxi back to the CCP to wait for the dancers to finish their class. In the meantime, we wandered into the office marked "Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra." We explained who we were and said that we would love to sit in on a rehearsal or meet any orchestra musicians, if possible. The woman introduced us to the man who was in the office with her, Adolfo "Pong" Mendoza, the principal bassoonist with the orchestra. He was happy to meet us and walked us around backstage introducing us to the principal and second clarinetists (Ariel and Victorino), the concertmaster, and the conductor of the PPO. They were all so nice and generous, and even gave us a free bag of the chicharon they had backstage. Pong had some time before their concert that evening, and so he asked if we wanted to grab a cup of coffee with him. We went to a nearby Starbucks (yes, they have Starbucks in the Philippines), and talked about music, Project Philippines, and what our plans were while we were there, while watching the sun set over the water of Manila Bay. We even discussed the possibility of us visiting the University of the Philippines in St. Thomas where many of the PPO members teach, and giving a masterclass. Unfortunately, this ended up not working out, but we definitely have something to plan on for our next trip!

Brian and Midori with members of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

Bassoon and Chicharon. What more can you ask for?

When we got back to CCP, Pong had had a little bit of free time, so he and Midori got to "geek out" a little, playing each others' instruments. Pong makes and sells his own custom bassoon (and clarinet) reeds, and so Midori got to try some of these reeds, and he let her keep one! Before leaving for his performance, he asked if we wanted to hear them play tomorrow, and we said absolutely yes! He said he could get us comp tickets to the Ballet Philippines performance, as well as the opera's performance of Madame Butterfly.

It was around this time that the dancers got out, and we went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant with the director of Ballet Philippines. We had a really good time, and ate some great food. Afterwards, Brian won Midori a stuffed pig from a small carnival game set up nearby. What a productive day!

Musician's Perspective: Week 2

by Brian Gnojek and Midori Samson

Week 2, Day 1 (June 11, 2012):
Teaching was a little difficult today at the Catarman SPED Center, because they were doing some kind of workshop at the main auditorium where we had taught last week. We were able to find an outdoor area to teach, and we taught a basic musical staff (only three lines), with each staff corresponding to a sound you could make with your body (clap, slap, stomp). By the end of the class, the students were reading basic music, and COMPOSING music by relating the high and low sounds to the cadence of words their teachers use: "Sit, down! Sit down!" "Pay attention, Pay attention," "Do you homework…" etc. We extremely impressed with the progress these students have made in essentially 3 days of class.

Day 2:
We spent today making musical instruments (shakers) out of plastic bottles, filled with sand, rice, and rocks, and decorated by them with colored pencils and pastels. One of our students wrote in her journal at the end of the day, "Today I learned that you can make a musical instrument out of anything!" :-)

Day 3:
Today we began planning for the end-of-the-week performance. Because the students do not have instruments besides their new shakers, we have decided we are going to sing and use our shakers and bodies to make the accompaniment. As it happened, at different points in the last week, we heard the SPED students singing "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye, and the CNHS students sang "12:51" by the Philippine group Krissy and Ericka, so those are the songs we decided to perform. After assigning who would sing solos/duets (just a few lines of music per person), we began with some breathing exercises and vocal warm-ups to get the kids going, as well as some call and response to work on singing on-key.


The day ended with a brownout, but we got to see how beautiful the night sky was when there was no light pollution from the city. The team spent some quality time out on the back porch doing what we do best: goofing around and making each other laugh.



Day 4:
Today was the day we really started to put the music together for the performance. We used what they had learned about rhythms to write out accompaniment figures for the shakers, and for those that didn't have their shakers, we just did clapping and stomping feet, which was an important part of the music!


Day 5:
Today was the dress rehearsal at our performance space, the Catarman Municipal Auditorium. We ran everything a few times and did our best to get the students to SING OUT! By the end of the day, we felt pretty confident that the performance would go (relatively) smoothly. We were treated to a wonderful dinner by Marissa, the principal of CNHS, whose birthday was July 15. We (Midori and Brian) have been enjoying the food here, and this dinner was no exception: fish dip, flan, pancit, chicken wings, and a big birthday cake! We also had some mango salsa made by one of the only other Americans in Northern Samar, Lauren, who we were introduced to by our friend and part-time guide, Brenfred Romero. It was a really fun gathering, and reminded me that one of the best parts of this trip so far (and would prove to continue through the end of the trip) was the amazing people we met. Everyone was so friendly and helpful and supportive. Our jobs would have been extremely difficult if not impossible were it not for them.

Day 6:
The big day! The morning rehearsal went well, though it was a little tough keeping the kids in line with so much going on. The performance went very smoothly, and the students performed fantastically. The performance space was a large outdoor space and the town theater in Catarman. The stage was beautifully decorated with props donated by the teachers of CNHS and SPED including flowers, balloons, posters that the students created with our visual art teacher, Tighe, and a huge banner with a photograph of the governor of Northern Samar. It said that he, along with the mayor of Catarman supported Project Philippines and was decorated with the 4 words we incorporated into our lessons throughout the workshop: expression, trust, individuality, and respect. The amount of effort that both schools put into the performance day really showed us how much it meant to them that we were there. This was also made clear when we reflected on how much our students had grown in the last 2 weeks. We remembered how much they struggled to speak up during "Shabuya" in our first class. But during the performance, each student showed no hesitation to sing their solos loud and move with the music. We were extremely proud. Midori and Brian were also able to each do a solo, and we played the Poulenc Sonata as well, which was new (and I think a little confusing) to our Philippine audience, but very well received. After the concert was over, the team was treated like rockstars. Almost every student wanted their picture taken with us, our autograph, a "remembrance", or at least a hug. It was very touching, and many of the students had made us remembrances of their own. We ended the day with a well-earned night out with Brenfred, and Julius and Ray, who had helped us the entire 2 weeks with transportation, meals, and anything else we needed. Unfortunately, Midori had caught a Philippines cold with a high fever and had to stay home to get some rest. We all had to turn in fairly early because our flight out the next morning was at 6:30am.

Day 7:
Just a quick note to finish our trip to Northern Samar. We woke up at around 4:30am, packed our stuff and drove to the airport. We got out of the car only to find that several of the students from the Catarman National High School were waiting there to see us off! In addition, they sent us with a large piece of paper, about 4'x4', covered with notes and pictures and letters to us. It was a wonderful, beautiful gesture, and it is something we'll never forget. We were able to see them on the other side of the fence until our plane began takeoff. What a wonderful way to end the first two weeks of our trip.

 

Musician's Perspective: Week 1

Sorry for the lateness of our blog posts! Internet in the areas where we were teaching was sparse at best. We have also been so busy it’s been hard to find time to breathe! This post is written by Brian and Midori about their first week of teaching.

Week 1, Day 1 (June 5, 2012):

Flying went very, very smoothly, both the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to Manila. Who knew that the shortest path from Chicago to Hong Kong is through the North Pole? It’s always been my (Brian’s) dream to be met at a gate by someone with my name on a card, and it finally happened!

Day 2:

After 2 hours of sleep, we went back to the airport to fly to Northern Samar, our first stop on the trip. We got to watch a beautiful sunrise over the islands of the Philippines from the airplane, a real treat.

The airport at Catarman is the smallest I’ve ever been to, and some of the residents were on the runway to watch the airplanes land. The only gate area they had was made of lawn chairs and all that separated it from the security “checkpoint” (a guard who quickly looked through everyone’s bag) was a thin plexiglas wall. Very different from the US!

Runway side of the airport

Parking lot side of the airport

We got to the house, and it is gorgeous, right on the water. It’s hard to not feel guilty staying here when there is so much poverty surrounding us. It helped to remind ourselves of how much we’re going to help these kids. We were all very tired, so instead of teaching today day, we decided to go and just meet the kids. The kids at the Catarman SPED School were very polite and gracious, but there were a few more than we had planned on. We decided to split the 60+ kids into 2 groups to make teaching easier. These groups would alternate between music and dance classes during the next two weeks. The Catarman National High School was an experience: the students had prepared a whole dance sequence for us, and it was simply amazing. 

So much talent. Kendra, Leo and Chelsea are going to have a lot of fun teaching them! And we’ll have fun, too, because in my experience if you’re a good dancer, you have a pretty good musical foundation, too. After a great seafood dinner with Julius, one of our hosts (including what would become one of our favorite foods, pancit), we finally got a chance to sleep!

Day 3:

Today we taught an introduction game called "Shabuya", where you get in a circle, and everyone says their name and three things about themselves. The students were understandably shy at first, but we were able to get through the game with all groups at both schools. We also taught a game called "Zip, Zap, Zop" where you pass those three words around the circle and try to stay in rhythm (and say the right words!). We ended by playing part of the Beethoven Duet for clarinet and bassoon, and asked the students what they felt while we played. We emphasized that music (and all art!) is all about communicating a mood, idea, or story, and that you can change the way you play music according to how you want the listener to feel.

We ended this day with a performance at the Governor's Ball. In addition to the governor, the mayor of Catarman was there, and the contestants for the Miss Northern Samar 2012 pageant. It was a real treat, and great to eat freshly cooked pork carved off of a whole cooked pig! Midori and Brian performed a movement of the Poulenc duet for clarinet and bassoon, and a American folk-style piece that Brian arranged called "Till Dawn". Both were well-received.

Midori and Brian with Gov. Paul Daza

Day 4:

Today we visited the market to get supplies for the rest of our 2 weeks in Catarman. Grocery choices were limited, but we were able to get about 60 eggs for about $3, ingredients for chicken adobo, spaghetti, and some basics like bread and rice. The best part, though, was the fresh fruit: mangos, pineapple, and bananas! Like everything else at the market, the price of the fruit was unbeatable. We bought half a dozen mangoes for about $.60. Added to the fresh coconuts we were able to get near where we stayed, we were in produce heaven.

The music team continued teaching rhythms using the "Zip, Zap, Zop" game as a basis. The students grasped the concept of half, quarter, and eighth notes very quickly! We finished by playing an arrangement Brian did of Mark O'Connor's "Appalachia Waltz", another American folk-style tune reminiscent of Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo” and “Appalachian Spring.” As we played we asked the students to draw a picture as if we were the soundtrack to a movie. They came up with some very interesting ideas, from remembering a pet who had died, to wind blowing through hanging laundry in the summer. I hope to be able to scan some of the drawings and send them to the composer!

Day 5 and 6:

Midori and I woke up early to see if we could catch the sunrise over the ocean. It was beautiful.

The rest of the weekend was spent traveling all the way down the island, across a bridge to Leyte, finally settling in Palompon. On Sunday we went to a beautiful island near Palompon called Kalanggaman before traveling all the way back.

 

It was a long, winding, hilly drive, but we really got to see what the countryside in Samar is like, and it is beautiful.

Art for a Cause at the Philippine Consulate:

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.

We are hosting a show with talented musicians and dancers from The Juilliard School, as well as a visual artist and a film! All proceeds will go directly to our trip.

The show will be:

Monday April 30th

7:30 pm-9:00 pm

at The Philippines Consulate

556 5th avenue

between 45th and 46th st.

$25 regular price and 20 for students

If you would like to reserve a ticket please let me know as soon as possible! If you cannot make the concert, but wish to donate here is the online link to the field! https://www.thefield.org/Profile.aspx?SAID=2689

Any help and support you may be able to provide will help our team get there!

Thank you!

Project Philippines 2012 Team