JFM Stages 2010 Nihongo Fiesta at Mall of Asia

Immerse yourself into the fascinating world of Japanese culture on February 27, 2010, as the Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM) and SM Mall of Asia, hold the 2010 Nihongo Fiesta at the SM Mall of Asia Cinema and Main Mall Atrium.

The annual festival, which promotes international cultural and arts exchange between Japan and the Philippines, will include a highly-anticipated Nihongo speech contest, a fun and hip Japanese and Filipino Street Fashion Exhibit and Contest, and an exciting J-Rock (Japanese rock) Concert.

Filipino students and professionals who want to show off their linguistic skills in Nihongo are invited to join the 37th Nihongo Speech Contest and get a chance to win an all-expense paid week-long study tour in Japan. In line with JFM’s objective of promoting cultural exchange through Japanese Language Education, participants are required to deliver their own original compositions on a subject of their choice. High School Nihongo beginners, on the other hand, can participate in the 2nd Nihongo Quiz Bee for High School Students to showcase their knowledge in Japanese language and culture. Both contests will be held in Cinema 2 of Mall of Asia; from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Aside from showcasing the Japanese language, the Nihongo Fiesta will also put on display the stylish and edgy characters that descend the streets of Tokyo in the Japanese and Filipino Street Fashion Exhibit and Contest. The trendy Tokyoites are captured in a photo exhibition along with Manila’s very own interpretation of street fashion through the watchful eyes of Filipino fashion designer and style blogger Cecile Zamora Van Straten, and curated by Team Manila. Guests are invited to express their individuality, dress up in their street style best, and turn the hallways of Mall of Asia into urban center catwalks on February 27. Roving “style scouts” will choose the best dressed and the winner will take home a cash prize and Japanese fashion products. The Japanese and Filipino Street Fashion Exhibit and Contest will run from February 22 to 28 in the Main Mall Atrium of SM Mall of Asia.

Finally, cap off the Nihongo Fiesta festivities in the evening with fantastic music and dancing at the J-Rock Concert featuring the influential Japanese punk-pop-rock band Shonen Knife. Fresh from their US tour, the all-female group, which has gained a worldwide cult following, will rock out with the country’s all-male dunk (dance and punk) band, Pedicab in a one-night only free concert at Mall of Asia’s San Miguel by the Bay from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

The 2010 Nihongo Fiesta is supported by the following media partners: Manila Bulletin, NU 107 and ClicktheCity.com.

Admission is free to all 2010 Nihongo Fiesta events. For inquiries, contact the JFM at (632) 811-6155 or email email@jfmo.org.ph or visit their website at www.jfmo.org.ph.

CCP Sets Stage for First Philippine Guitar Fest

The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and The Guitar Friends will hold the First Philippine International Guitar Festival 2010 from January 28 to 31 at the CCP in Pasay City. With the objective of promoting the Classical Guitar, the festival offers exciting musical performances by outstanding guitarists from the Philippines and abroad.

Maestro Jose Valdez, who is considered to be one of the best guitar teachers in the country, is the director of the Festival. Maestro Valdez, who has 35 years of teaching experience, is a lecturer and professor at the University of the Philippines, Philippine Women’s University, St. Scholastica’s College, Philippine National University, La Concordia College and St. Paul University. He is a pioneer of all major guitar courses in most schools in the Philippines. The CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Arts ranks him as one of the pioneers of classical guitar in the country.

Among those performing in the Festival are Mr. Steve Lin, Mr. Michael Dadap, Mr. Jose Valdez, Mr. Perfecto de Castro, Mr. Sixto Roxas, Mr. Kasilag Guitar Trio, Tabs, UP Guitar Orchestra, Fundacion Centro Flamenco and the winners of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists 2009 Guitar Category. More artists and groups, including the Manila Symphony Orchestra, are expected to be added to the list of performers in the Festival. One of the highlights of the Festival will be the concert by a Spanish guitar soloist to be brought in by Instituto Cervantes.

Mr. Steve Lin is a renowned international artist who has concertized throughout the US, Italy, the Philippines and Taiwan. An award winning guitarist and a recording artist, Mr. Lin teaches guitar at the San Jose State University and Northern California School of Music. He has a master’s degree from Yale School of Music and is completing his doctorate at the New England Conservatory under Eliot Fiske.

Mr. Michael Dadap has been artistic/music director and conductor of The Children’s Orchestra Society since 1984. He studied at UP, the Mannes College of Music and the Juilliard School. As a conductor, he has conducted and collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned concert artists. As an accomplished classical guitarist, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1974 and has since performed in numerous concerts internationally.

Mr. Sixto “Butch” Roxas is a highly respected guitarist currently helping reestablish as well as playing for the UST Jazz Orchestra together with conductor/saxophonist Mr. Tots Tolentino. He studied at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston and took guitar courses in various institutions abroad such as the Schola Cantorum in Paris and in Barcelona, Spain with Maestro Josep Henriquez under a grant from the Agencia Española. He is a faculty member of the UST Conservatory of Music.

Mr. Perfecto de Castro is hailed as one of the best Filipino guitarists. A graduate of PWU School of Music, he studied with Maestro Jose Valdez. The Laudarra, or the Ten String Classical Guitar, is Castro’s instrument of choice. He has collaborated with composers all over the world to add to the repertoire of the Ten String Guitar. He is a founding member of the Kasilag Guitar Quartet.

Fundacion Centro Flamenco is an organization dedicated to the promotion of the art of flamenco music and dance.

The Guitar Friends, which is spearheading the Festival, is composed of guitar aficionados of varying levels of expertise in guitar performance brought together by their love for guitar and their association with Maestro Jose Valdez, the Festival director. The Guitar Friends support the Guitar Immersion Program of Maestro Valdez and conducts activities such as campus concerts and master classes.

The 1st Philippine International Guitar Festival 2010 will offer master classes and lectures on topics such as “Building a Performing Career,” “Flamenco,” “A Guitarist’s Pain,” “Jazz Improvisation,” “Ensemble Playing” and “Musicality, Intelligence and Technique.” The Festival will also feature booths and displays by guitar makers and manufacturers.

The 1st Philippine International Guitar Festival 2010 is sponsored by CCP, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), SMART Communications, Inc., and Rudolf Lietz, Inc.

For details, call (63917) 526-6377, (63920) 498-2720, (63915) 921-3440, e-mail philguitarfest@gmail.com or visit http://philguitarfest.blogspot.com.

National and College Theater Festival to Open

To highlight the outstanding theater achievements of university-based theater groups, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), through its National Committee on Dramatic Arts, will be holding Tanghal, the fourth National University and College Theater Festival on February 1-5, 2009 as part of the Philippine International Festival (PIAF).

The event will feature a showcase of six exceptional theater performances that will be followed by a conference featuring international guest artists that will tackle the contributions of theater groups in the universities and colleges all over the Philippines in the hopes of forming a National Student Theater Alliance. The fourth Tanghal is aimed at marking the importance of university and college-based theater programs in the Philippine history.

This year’s fourth Tanghal is slated to take place in the National Capital Region (NCR), as the three previous theater festivals were held in the provinces.

The first Tanghal was held in Iloilo City in 2007 and was hosted by the University of San Agustin and the Teatrokon Western Visayas Theater Network. In 2008, Tanghal moved to Zamboanga with the Western Mindanao State University and the local government unit of the City of Zamboanga playing hosts. For the third leg of the theater festival, Tanghal was held at Laguna, hosted by Colegio de San Juan Letran in Calamba in cooperation with the Arts Research and Training Institute in Southern Tagalog, Inc., Linang Laguna Theater Network and the Lusong Luzon Theater Network.

The PIAF is annually held every February as per the Presidential Proclamation No. 683 signed by former President Corazon Aquino in 1991 and is currently undertaken by NCCA headed by its chairman, Dr. Vilma Labrador and its executive director Cecile Guidote Alvarez. Commissioner Ricardo de Ungria, head of the Subcommission on the Arts, is the festival director of PIAF 2010.

For details, contact the NCCA at (632) 527-2192 loca 612-615, email ncca.paio@gmail.com or log on to www.ncca.gov.ph.